A Soldiers' Guise
by BlankAce
Summary: As a spy Hiccup didn't expect a cushy desk job, and he didn't get one… At first. Now Hiccup is being tasked with training a handful of cadets at a new dragon academy in Berk. But with his clan about to make a decision that will change the tides of the war what is to come of the bond he is building with his students? And, in the end, what is to come of him? Medieval AU / Hiccstrid
1. Patriotic

**Hey,**

 **So I don't own anything that isn't mine! Thanks for reading and a huge thanks to my beta Alekazam6 for fixing my mistakes. (Of which there is many to come.)**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

In the sweet breeze of the ending spring, it was easy to put everything behind you. Flying on the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself it was even easier. The smooth scales that rubbed against his wrist and the worn leather saddle between his legs felt uncannily natural. He could care less about the men who rode behind him.

Below him stretched an endless and rhythmic rolling ocean. The horizon above him obscured by a single cloud, the huge faded blue sky itself dotted with only a few. The sun had peaked hours ago and was making a quick descent. Hiccup couldn't have asked for a better day to go flying.  
But he certainly could have asked for a better day for this.

The horizon became blemished with something other than a cloud, several black bodies formed where the sky had melted away. His peaceful flight was coming to an end. Behind him the harsh wing beats of a dragon grew louder and Hiccup slowed to ride beside them.

"Major Haddock?" The man on the dragon beside him asked. Though he was obviously several years older than the major he had addressed, he did it with respect. He was one of the few who did.  
"Yes Staff Commander Lufin?" Hiccup asked. He had a feeling that those black bodies weren't birds. They grew in size and moved ever closer and they defiantly weren't birds. But they could be.

Lufin shifted, unlike Hiccup who was turned towards him and rode his dragon without a control bridle, he had to make sure he had a firm grip on his. After he had rearranged the grip he turned back to his major. Hiccup was frowning at him now, like he had just been offended. "We are being approached by several enemy riders."

Hiccup sighed and with a comfortable simplicity, turned backwards on his dragon. Lufin watched the now common display. The man before him was not normal. A 19 year-old major was almost unheard of, but one who moved with such ease on the back of a killer beast was plain terrifying.

The man who was hardly more than a boy ruffled through a saddle bag that rested on his dragon's back. The dragon itself seemed unconcerned with what its master was doing. The sleek black beast was the embodiment of the team it leads. A team of Striker dragons, lead by a skilled man backed by a terrifying dragon. Dragons built for speed and known for their ability to kill. Hiccups' dragon didn't wear its armor, Hiccup always claimed it was too bulky and slowed them down. Though it was obvious that when leading his group, he never got anywhere close to top speed anyway.

Hiccup, however, did wear armor. A specialized set that too closely resembled a dragon. His helmet was a matte steel, decorated with three rows of horns. Some said it was actual dragon teeth but Hiccup had crafted them from a clay like stone. He had a metal breastplate and shoulder guards the same steel as the helmet. A large buckle was strapped on the breastplate, and underneath the metal buckle was his units emblem in red.

Under that was brown padding and two black belts wrapped, one around his waist, and the other a little higher. He had two almost identical bracers, the only difference was that one held a small dagger. They were steel but they had brown leather padding wrapped on the outside as well. His pants were green and had brown leather straps wrapping around them. He only had one boot, the other foot was replaced by a gleaming metal prosthetic.

It was almost comical when you looked at the two of them. So calm and young they looked more like bright eyed cadets then equal opponents to the enemy. Even now as Hiccup fumbled for his telescope his youth showed. The gold plated telescope that he had crafted himself slipped from his hand.

"Oops, ha-ha. Toothless fetch." It was another strange thing about the boy to, he had named his dragon, a creature made for killing, Toothless.

Hiccup was still facing backwards as the dragon plummeted towards the ocean. As they fell he buckled his knees and locked his fingers into the saddle. He lay his back down on the dragon as it fell through the sky, watching the black masses blur at the speed. It ended too fast as the dragon flew past the telescope and leveled out again. The telescope landed on Hiccup's stomach with a solid thump.

"Thank you for that, bud." Hiccup muttered sarcastically, now they were skimming the ocean, above them his team of five flew. He sat up and turned around, mindlessly rubbing the dragon's head as he unfolded his scope.

A group of seven enemy dragon riders with determined expressions flew towards them. They rode a wide array of dragons. A Monstrous Nightmare led the group. They were Unkonst soldiers, clothed in tattered black armor, riders of Drago's army. He coaxed Toothless up, taking position in front of the other dragons.

"V formation," he shouted out. Behind him Staff Commander repeated the order. "There are seven enemy soldiers approaching from the north. They are lead by a Monstrous Nightmare, they don't seem to be a hit team but they have seen us and have not changed direction. This may have started as a patrol mission, men, but we're going to have to fight. These men are either stupid or skilled so watch yourself. Keep the dragons alive, they can be retrained. Understood?"

His voice carried above the rumble of the waves below them and the thrum of their dragons wings. Two years of commanding had perfected his pitch. His men, in unison, called out.

"Yes, Sir!" They were itching for something other than border patrol.

Hiccup leaned forward and pulled his sword from his belt. He thrust it downward so it ran the length of his leg; the blade was licked by bright flames. He brought his body close too Toothless and streamlined himself. Then he thrust his sword in the air and cried out.  
"For Vitikean!"

* * *

The battle was fought with such intensity that not even the splash from a fallen comrade would break the soldier's concentration. There were a lot of splashes.

By the end of the battle Hiccup had lost more men than he ever thought he would. Only he and Staff Commander Lufin were left. Below them the sea was littered with bodies of dragons and humans. The battle so dire his men disregarded their orders to keep the dragons alive. One dragon was still alive though, the leader's dragon. Its wings had been locked up as soon as their rider had fallen off. The mechanism that help riders control their dragons was known to malfunction and hold down a dragon's wings. But right now it was killing him.

"Let's go major, nothing we can salvage here, " Staff Commander mumbled.

"It's drowning Lufin." Hiccup said, ignoring his last comment and instead looking down at the dragon thrashing in the water.

"Just one less enemy dragon to worry about. We should get our fallen soldiers and return to the base." Hiccup didn't respond, he just continued to watch the dragon.

"Sorry," Hiccup said, and then he and Toothless dove towards the sea. "Toothless you stay up here, drop me off there and I'll release it." Toothless obeyed and Hiccup slid from his saddle. Above them Lufin was shouting for him to come back but Hiccup was already under the water. The dragon was thrashing and wild with fear. Hiccup swam over to the red beast; the dragon's legs were a flurry of activity.

"It's okay. I'm going to help you now." He tried to calm the beast in his head, it obviously didn't work. The Nightmare didn't stop thrashing and Hiccup had to swim away a little to avoid its claws. He tried to cut the rope from above the dragon but he couldn't get close. Seeing that he wouldn't be able to free the dragon like this he took a deep breath.

Under water everything was quieter, even the violent kicking from the dragons seemed somehow subdued. He swam closer, trying his best to avoid the gleaming claws. The pull the dragons kicking made forced him to hold onto the beasts wing. The frenzied animal didn't even notice the extra weight. He pulled out his dagger and started to saw away at the rope locking around its wings.

He moved quickly, wanting to free the dragon as soon as he can. As he worked it's paddling slowed. He had one wing free! The dragon noticed the sudden lack of restriction and started to flap viciously. The wing came down hard, and even with the water breaking its stride it hit hard.

It clipped Hiccup's head throwing him backwards; the sudden movement knocked his breath out of him. He struggled to get back to the surface. The dragon struggled to get the clasp off. With one side broken the mechanism started to slid ride off. The dragon kicked one more time.

Hiccup in his blind struggle for air had put himself in a bad position. The dragon's talon had dug deep into his side, suddenly the water around him was dyed red. His struggle to break surface became all the more important.

He saw red, then everything started to turn black. Then he saw black. With the little strength he had left he stretched his arm out, the black mass took hold of it gently. Soon it was pulling him upwards, and seconds later his lungs were filling themselves with salty air.

Toothless gave him a worried look as he struggled to get on the dragon's back. Toothless had done his job much better than Hiccup. Though his job had certainly been easier. The saddle was now soaking wet yet Hiccup clung desperately to the brown leather. When he had managed to clamber onto Toothless, the Staff Commander had flown down close to them. He had a serious scowl on his face.

"You chose an injured dragon over your fallen comrades." The man growled.

"The dragon was still alive; I gave that priority over collecting the dead!" Hiccup defended. The man's scowl deepened.

"Of course. I'll tell that to their families when they ask for the bodies then. You are a traitor Haddock, dragons should never take priority." Hiccup's eyes narrowed, he silently praised himself for lasting this long without getting caught.

"I'm sorry Lufin."

"It's Staff Commander Lufin." He growled pulling his sword from his sheath. Hiccup just watched, kind of blankly, pushing his mind away from what was happening. Vacantly he pulled his sword from its clutch. Then he used his unfair advantage.

There was a sharp noise, then Toothless opened his mouth and shot an intense flaming ball at the man. Lufin screamed, throwing his arms up in a futile attempt to protect himself. Hiccup steeled himself as the flames enveloped the man, throwing him from his Deadly Nadder and dropping him into the sea. He joined the bodies of the dragons that still rested in the ocean below.

"What should we do?" Hiccup said, though he knew what he was going to do. He kind of hated himself for it. Toothless knew to as he had already started to turn, leaving Staff Commander Lufin to finds his grave with the other fallen men. He turned and gave a silent salute.

* * *

"I think it would be best if you just dropped me in the ocean near shore, I could say I swam for awhile and then I passed out." Toothless just looked at him and tilted his head, then let out a short churl.

After leaving the area Toothless had lead the Monstrous Nightmare and the Deadly Nadder to a small Island nearby. He thought he knew the name of it but he was unsure. They had settled on an unpopulated beach. Hiccup sat on a log, shivering from the cold. He had used his undershirt to wrap his wound, the rest of his clothes was still soaking wet. His wound had started to smart something horrible but the Nightmare beside him seemed so sorry that he didn't want to complain in front of it.

"It has to be believable bud. If you drop me off on the shore I won't be half drowned and the army will think I ran away." The dragon looked even more confused. "You won't be able to come with me but you can stay nearby. After the army comes and gets me I can pretend to find you again." The dragon perked up at the idea of hide and seek. Which would have made Hiccup laugh if it wasn't for the fact that he was completely underestimating his body's ability to pump blood out.

Beside him the Nightmare let out a throaty noise, it sounded apologetic. Hiccup rubbed its snout, which the beast had laid across his lap. Lufin's Deadly Nadder just watched from aside, unsure of what was happening. Hiccup realised that getting these dragons somewhere else should be a priority.

"Toothless will take you back to a safe island, there is a tribe there that will take care of you. I'm one of them. Actually I'm supposed to be the leader. But they've got this brilliant mind out here doing grunt work. If I could I would take you myself but I have to clean up the mess I've made." Hiccup gave it another affectionate and, he hopped, forgiving pat before looking at Toothless. He stared back at him with worried green eyes.

"Don't trust me bud?" The dragon chuffed, then stretched. Hiccup climbed up onto his back. As soon as they were out of sight of the dragon Hiccup started to groan, clutching his side. He didn't bother to tell Toothless anything, as the dragon slowed and flew steady so as not to jostle him about.

The trip passed in a haze, he wasn't quite sure what shore Toothless had taken him to but the city lights that dotted the large mountain at least promised people. Toothless had been as gentle as he could, but as Hiccups groaning had grown louder and closer to screams he couldn't help but want to rush. Leaving the boy in the water was something the dragon was reluctant to do. But he trusted Hiccup so that was exactly what he did.

The sun had set long ago, both had been too goal oriented to even throw a glance at what must have been a beautiful sunset. Instead they only saw the faint light at the rim of the world and the night that seemed to spill out across the sky.

The water felt warm when Hiccup lowered himself into it. He knew that it probably wasn't that warm though. Toothless gave him one last worried look before flying up himself. Then he stopped, hovering above Hiccup.

"Go away you Toothless. I'll be okay. Go help the other dragons." The dragon just looked at him, though it felt mocking, Hiccup might have just been reading too much into it, and chuffed before flying a little higher.

Hiccup ignored him and stared the distant shore; this had been a bad idea.


	2. Titles

**Here is chapter 2. Thanks to Fireloom A.K.A 'the same beta new name' for the great editing! And also thanks to everyone who reviewed or those who favorited and/or followed the last chapter.**

* * *

The first time he woke up was unpleasant and noisy.

"-ey! Can you hear me? Hey!" Hiccup wasn't sure who was speaking but he seriously wanted them to stop, his ears rang and his head hurt and the last thing he wanted was to be shouted at... He wasn't too disoriented though, and the feel of the sand under his body, and the waves licking at his feet confirmed he had survived at least. He closed his hand, crunching a fistful of sand in his fingers, then let it go again.

"Oh thank goodness. Okay, don't worry I'm going to get help." It was a female voice that spoke and Hiccup was relieved that she lowered the volume of her voice. He didn't open his eyes to see what she looked like, even though he wanted to. She sounded young, his age maybe. He could hear her footsteps fading away from him, the waves still lapping at his feet and making him shiver.

' _She could have at least pulled me out a bit...'_

* * *

The second time he woke up was painful and quiet. He opened his eyes and found that bright light was streaming through a casement window. It shone down on his face, forcing him to close his eyes again while they adjusted to the harsh light. After a second he opened them again, finally able to handle the shine.

He was in a simple room and lying on a soft bed. There was a small bedside table and a chair on the left side of him, the other side was pretty bare except for the wooden door. He was completely alone; the only sound came from outside the open window.

He struggled to sit up, his side resisted the movement and he winced at the pain breaking out in the area. He wondered momentarily how long he had been asleep,it couldn't have been long...

Now sitting up and with the pain dissipating, he took note of what he was wearing; basically nothing... All his armor had been removed, along with his shirt, so he was only wearing his black pants. His waist was wrapped in a white bandage, which he had expected of course.

He glanced around the room, but didn't see his clothing anywhere. He shrugged the covers off himself and turned, carefully lifting his leg off the bed. It was tender around the prosthetic. He tested it out to make sure it could take his weight. When he was satisfied that it could, he put his other leg down and stood up.

"Should you be doing that?" A voice called out from behind him. He looked back, seeing a bright-eyed girl looking in from the window. She had blonde hair parted to the side, with two longer strands in front of her ears. He couldn't see from this angle but he suspected that it was braided in the back. She was leaning on the window sill and smiled at him, a kind and sweet grin. He returned the smile.

"I'm sure I'm allowed to walk." he countered with a sarcastic grin. As soon as the words had left his mouth though, the door to his room burst open and an older woman tromped in. She took one look at him and her motherly instincts seemingly kicked in.

"Oh you shouldn't be up yet, sweetheart. Go back to bed you've had a hard night," she said with a thick accent, Hiccup gaped. Behind him the blonde girl laughed.

"You don't have to baby him Melvat, he's a soldier after all." The girl came to his defense. He nodded in agreement quickly.

"I'm looking for my clothes actually," He gestured at himself, "I was wearing a lot more than this when I got here. Wait, I _was_ wearing more than this when I got here right?" Melvat gave him a look before nodding.

"I can go get them now if you like." She said and left soon after to retrieve his clothes. Once she disappeared Hiccup turned back to the girl.

"I'm Hiccup." he said, going to offer his hand but remembering she was outside the window stopped himself and awkwardly waved.

"I'm Astrid, Nice to meet you Major Hiccup." She said waving back at him. She stressed the major part, Hiccup frowned at that, how did she know...?

"Nice to meet you, Astrid."

"Do you know where you are, Major?"

"I think it's Berk." He walked over to her; each step sent a slight painful tremor up his left leg. He would have to check that out soon...

Berk had only joined the Vitikean a few weeks ago. He didn't care much for politics but he knew that the king had promised them something to get them to join the alliance.

"It is. Would you like me to show you around?" Astrid asked at the same time Melvat walked back in with some clothes slung over her arm. It wasn't his though...

"Your clothes are still being repaired and dried, but this should fit you." She looked him up and down, taking in his thin appearance. Hiccup ignored the look and grabbed his shirt. It was a plain light green tunic.

"Thank you." he uttered to the woman they called Melvet. He turned back to Astrid in the window."Yeah sure, show me around."

* * *

After Hiccup had dressed himself in the unfamiliar clothes, he left the house and met Astrid outside. They exchanged yet more pleasantries before she started to lead him around.

The town of Berk was built on a craggy cliff. The houses were sturdy but most of them were new. Berk had been the target of many attacks from both sides before they allied with the Vitikeans.

There were long docks with large boats, merchants and fishers milled around on the work day. Hiccup had enjoyed getting out into the fresh air even if it was slightly tainted with the scent of drying fish.

The people were all busy, brawny and benevolent, stopping to greet him, and more often Astrid as they trailed up and down the winding paths of Berk. It was a beautiful day and Hiccup wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. So it was a true disappointment when halfway through his wound became agitated and they had to stop and rest.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked him.

"Yeah," he grunted clutching his side. He hadn't opened his wound but even his left leg was starting to hurt again. He seriously needed to get that fixed. Something must have happened when he was in the ocean.

Hiccup looked up to give Astrid a reassuring smile. It was then he really took in the area they were resting at. Before him was a small dip that lead to an arena like area. Its top was covered with chains and there were several barred cages inside of the arena. It was like the gladiator arena in the capital.

"It's the dragon training arena." Astrid spoke up, drawing his attention back to her. "It had been used for teaching kids how to fight dragon way back when... But now it's going to be used to teach the kids of Berk to ride dragons."

Huh? Hiccup didn't like politics but even he knew where all the training academies were. Berk didn't have one.

"Why do you look so confused?" Astrid asked him, furrowing her own brow, "You're the one who is going to be teaching here."

"What!?"

* * *

Hiccup was standing in front of the lord of Berk, Lord Stoick. The man was imposing, with his huge build and throaty voice. His hair was bright red and his beard had become quite overgrown, it was a length only someone outside of the capital could wear.

The man had just rooted through a week's worth of letters to find the one that said specifically that Major Haddock would be teaching at the new Berk Cadet Academy. The letter said just that. Though his arrival wasn't supposed to be until three days from now.

"It's an amazing coincidence that you would end up here Major. We sent a letter to the nearest base as soon as we realised who you were. Word of your strange arrival should have reached the capital by now. Though I am under the impression that you traveled with several other soldiers, were you separated somehow in the fight?" Stoick asked.

"No Lord. We were outnumbered, I hardly managed to escape with my life. They rest of my team were lost."

"Oh," the large man said, sombre at the news, "You have my condolences. You should send word of that to the capital along with a notice of your position."

"Yes Lord." Hiccup said. He was upset, tired, and completely shocked about having to teach. He wasn't a teacher! He had more important things to do. He couldn't be a good sp-. He stopped mid thought, even thinking it made him nervous. He didn't want to have to deal with anything about that with the last incident still so sickeningly fresh in his mind.

"I'll go write that letter then." Hiccup huffed angrily. Stoick only gave him a quick nod, brushing off the small Major's attitude along with his ability's. The man couldn't care less about how smart Hiccup was. And it showed through his disregard to how the news upset the boy.

Hiccup didn't go write the letter. Instead he went out into the forest. He didn't understand why he hadn't been made aware of his transfer earlier. He wasn't aware of why he had been transferred at all! He hadn't done anything to let them know about himself, had he?

He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the figure that lurked behind him. He had come a long way out, the trees had completely blocked his view of the town and of the sea. He finally noticed the figure but it was too late.

Toothless leapt out of the tree, landing in front of Hiccup and letting out a low growl.

"Oh," Hiccup said, feigning offence, "so this is how it is?" His hand went to his belt and he brandished an imaginary sword. Toothless glanced at it, then back at him, and with juvenile innocence jumped onto Hiccup like a puppy. A flash of pain sent him into a fit of ' _ow ow ow wowowowowowow oooowwww!'_ Toothless just gave him big raspy licks.

"Yeah yeah, good to see you too. Now could you get off me?" The dragons snorted and with one more, happy, playful lick bound off the boy as gleefully as he had bounded on. Toothless was still wearing his brown leather saddle, which was odd since Hiccup had made it easy for the dragon to slip it off. He noticed the red ribbon tied on one of the saddle's bags.

A letter! Toothless gave him a curious look as he eyed the ribbon. He must have been given the letter by one of the council members back home. Hiccup grabbed it, ripped it open and started to read aloud, Toothless listened intently. Hiccup had no idea how much the dragon understood.

" _Hiccup, we have been made aware of your transfer just recently. Spies in court have heard that a complaint has come in about a mission where you previously lost several dragons during transport. People were asking questions. It seems the higher up's wanted you out of town while they dealt with this. With the loss of your squadron you've practically sealed your fate. Acting out against the transfer now would be unfavourable and may bring about unwanted backlash. Stay low and serve your 'country' well.  
Also, Hiccup, you are missed by both the clan members and the dragons. We wish quick intel so we may finally end this war. The council is taking good care of the tribe in your absence. We are hoping the day we reunite openly will soon be upon us, Prince of Dragons._

 _-The council of the Bewilderbeast clan."_

He read aloud to the patiently waiting Toothless.

"They just have to throw the title in there huh, bud." Hiccup mumbled dismissively, he would have to dispose of the letter later.

"You stay here in the forest tonight okay, I'll come get you in the morning. They should have accommodations for us by tomorrow night." The dragon hummed and Hiccup rub his snout. He walked back through the forest waving to Toothless as he went. "You keep a low profile too, I have to go and write a letter thanking people for this transfer. It's _so-o_ great, and I'm _so-o_ willing to serve and all that suck up speech stuff..."


	3. Dragons

**Hey,**

 **Once again a thank you to the kindly Fireloom and a thank you to anyone who reviewed, followed or fav'd! Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

 _The sight of a forge had been as welcome as the gates of heaven and as hot as the gates of hell._

Hiccup had spent that morning being shown his new home, which was in the newly built barracks beside the school. His room was the whole upper level, complete with a desk and a rack for his armor, which had been mended and polished, in the corner. It now sat on the rack, the helmet tilting to the left.

He had put it all back on, excluding the helmet, before continuing the tour of his new home. It would house all the cadets as well as serve as a lessons room. It was homey and impeccably clean.

Then Hiccup had been shown to the cage Toothless would be kept in, he immediately put up a resistance.

"Toothless is a well behaved dragon and I'm certainly not locking him in a cage every day." he asserted to the man who was showing him around. An older man with a tired glint in his eyes and a permanent scowl adorning his lip. He was scruffy and smelt of salted fish. Hiccup didn't know what qualified him to give the tour but he didn't complain or underestimate.

"Pardon me, Major Haddock, but it's for the safety of everyone in the village we lock up the dragons. They are not pets but half-tamed beasts."

"I refuse to keep Toothless locked up." Hiccup stood firm, the man just sighed and waved a hand in defeat.

"You'll have to bring it up with Lord Stoick then."

That ended the tour and Hiccup had gone to get Toothless. The dragon had been ecstatic and followed Hiccup eagerly. He led Toothless to the cage despite what he had said, though he left it unlocked and slightly open in case the dragon wanted to leave. But Toothless seemed content napping in the shade the barred cave provided.

He decided to take a look around town but it wasn't long before his leg started to ache again. He hobbled about for another hour trying to get home and stumbled upon something better. A forge.

Hiccup knocked on the open door, peering into the forge. A fire burned inside and the familiar sound of hammer on metal rang through the air. A stout man with a metal leg and hand looked up from his work. It took a second for the smith to recognize the figure in his doorway.

"Major Haddock? What brings you here?" the man asked.

"Call me Hiccup please," even though he had been a Major for a year it still felt weird to be addressed that way by people older than him.

"I've been having some trouble with my leg. You know saltwater, old wounds. I think I lost a stud too actually..." He said quizzically, lifting his leg up to look at it himself. He hopped on one foot over to a bench, stretching his leg out on the weathered wood. "I'm hoping to fix it up now, before it causes trouble in the future."

"Well I'm Gobber, local blacksmith. Do you want me to see what I can do for you, you might have better luck with the doctor though." The man continued clanging away at the fiery metal, Hiccup took no offense, understanding the need to shape the metal quickly.

"Actually I'm pretty handy with the tools myself so I could just take care of it myself if I can have access to your forge."

Gobber raised an eyebrow and gave Hiccup an appraising look. He was getting a lot of those lately. "Knock yourself out," the blacksmith grunted. Then he stopped hammering for a second and looked at Hiccup again, "not literally, of course."

Hiccup tried not to sigh and got to work on his leg instead. He was indeed missing a stud, and a few screws had been loosened as well. His leg throbbed each time he touched it and he figured he would have an easier time if he took it off first.

He touched the prosthetic again, gritting his teeth in pain. The salt water had agitated the stump. After a second of pain Hiccup stopped. He was about to ask Gobber for help when a familiar blonde head peaked into the forge.

"Gobber have you seen the Major?" Astrid asked, not noticing Hiccup until the question was out. She watched for a second as Hiccup unsuccessfully attempted to ease the prosthetic off again.

"Major Haddock, I was wondering if you wanted to come to the docks later to oversee the arrival of the dragons? You weren't supposed to be here yet so we aren't expecting your help though. Are you okay?" Hiccup gave her a half smile and motioned to his leg.

"Just trying to get this off without screaming." he told her with a dry chuckle.

"Do you need some help?" Astrid asked, and without waiting for an answer she walked over to him.

"Yeah, that would be great actually. It's pretty easy to take off, just…" Astrid followed his instructions as he issued them, loosening clasps and unbinding leather straps. At some points he just sat teeth clenched while she worked quickly.

"Just pull it off now?" She asked.

"Yeah on the count of-" Astrid pulled at once and it came off easily but painfully. Hiccup half screamed before his mind reminded him he was in the presence of a girl so he cut it off. He fell back, head landing with a resounding smack on the wood bench. He stayed like that for a minute, staring at the forges ceiling.

When he was able to move again he started to work. It helped him put the pain out of mind, and as time went on the pain eased. Astrid sat by quietly. He was so engrossed in his work he didn't notice that Gobber had stopped hammering or that he had asked a question.

"Hiccup!" Astrid yelled, grabbing his shoulder firmly. "We've been trying to get your attention for the for the past three minutes, where the hell do you go when you're working?" Hiccup looked at them questioningly.

"I asked you who made that," Gobber repeated, "It's fine work, not like anything I've seen before."

"I made it." Gobber raised his eyebrow. "What? I did, I made my own armor too. I'm not all brawn you know?" Hiccup pretended to flex his muscles. Astrid just rolled her eyes.

"Are you done then? Do you want to go see the dragons?" She asked with a lilt of sarcasm.

"Yeah." Fitting it back on was much easier the taking it off. He put some weight on it, the components slid easily and it felt good to have his foot back. He stood up, took a few careful steps, and satisfied with his handiwork gestured for Astrid to go ahead.

* * *

They walked down cobbled roads lined with new looking houses, all of them had some kind of repair being done or just finished. Astrid noticed Hiccup's staring as they walked past.

"We get attacked by raiding parties a lot here. It's one of the reasons we joined the Vitikean Empire. They promised to get us training so that we could protect ourselves, and serve if we wanted. We didn't expect to get our own dragons though, that was a major bonus." Hiccup nodded, Berk was in a strategical spot, both the Empire and Unknowns kingdom had wanted to set up a base there. He felt lucky they had joined Vitikean.

"Speaking of dragons, what about yours? You didn't have it when you got here and now you do? They don't exactly come when you call," she said with a hint of sarcasm, which she seemed to use it a lot.

"Mine does." Astrid laughed, and watched Hiccup's face, when he didn't laugh she stopped.

"You're not serious? You are? Are you crazy?"

"No! Seriously what is it with you people and doubting me?" He threw up his hands and walked ahead.

Astrid led him in silence so he didn't bother to start a new conversation. When the dock came in view, the towering ship with red flags adorned with a black dragon silhouette was entering the harbour. The ship was covered with sailors preparing to dock.

 _The dragons had arrived_.

Hiccup was surprised to see a few teenagers at the dock, along with the Stoick and a few other standing nobles. Astrid walked ahead and went to speak to a young couple, Hiccup took a moment to survey the teens. They were more than likely his new students, which felt awkward since they all seemed to be his age...

There were four, other then Astrid. They stood talking amongst themselves and watching the boat roll further into the harbour. One seemed to be boasting, he was buff, like most of the people in Berk, he looked like he would be a good soldier. He wore thick black armor and brown leather cuffs.

The two that seemed to be listening looked identical, and Hiccup knew that they must be twins, or at the very least close siblings. They were both blonde, not Astrid blonde though, Hiccup couldn't help but note. They wore male and female variations of the same armor. They were joking and teasing the boy who was boasting, but in a seemingly friendly way.

The last was a larger boy, he stood off to the side watching the boat keenly. He didn't seem to be interested in his peers. He was blonde too but his hair was shaped in an unappealing bowl cut. He seemed the least soldier like of all of them. He would be teaching a pretty rag tag team.

As the ship finally docked he shuffled past the students, who watched with curiosity as he approached the large ship. Someone on the deck above looked over and called out to him.

"Major Haddock! What a surprise to find my missing passenger safely at our destination!"

"Marvio! I took a spill in the ocean with Toothless, seems fate brought me here!" Hiccup shouted back. The burly sailor waved dismissively and Hiccup backed up as they started to lower the gang planks. When they were finally down Hiccup walked up to the ship, stepping on right foot first, a sailor superstition that Marvio made sure was practised on his boat. Anyone who didn't comply, or had a penchant for forgetting, took a quick dip in the ocean or an ungraceful fall back down to the dock. Hiccup had learned his lesson both ways.

"You've got a scraggly bunch here Hiccup." The man said, gesturing to the teens on the dock, who could be heard faintly arguing about what type of dragons each would receive. Marvio had been a close friend to Hiccup in the city and they were very open with each other. They walked below deck, sailors who were busy with the docking didn't bother to salute. But they shot friendly glances and courteous smiles to the Major. A few called out greetings, Hiccup had spent many a free night on the ship and was well known by most of the crew.

They continued down through the giant ship until they were in the cargo hold. The mild growls of a dragon could be heard easily as the walked down the stairs. They were completely alone in the hold except for the four dragons. A Gronckle, a Deadly Nadder, a Hideous Zippleback, and a Monstrous Nightmare. None of the dragons looked particularly strong for their types but at least they had some variety.

"The Empire didn't even give us enough, huh? I wonder if the twins will mind sharing you," he asked rhetorically, kneeling in front of the Zipplebacks cage.

"I don't think you'll have trouble getting them into their cages at the academy, my prince?" Marvio asked from behind Hiccup.

"Don't start now and slip up later Marvio. I hardly fit in as your prince anyway." He chuckled as the man gave him half bow. "Of course, it won't be a problem." They Nadder chortled curiously, already noticing the difference the two had from the other soldiers.

"Toothless is going to do it?" Marvio asked honestly, but Hiccup detected the quip in his words.

"Yep." Hiccup let out a low piercing whistle before confidently unlocking the cages, swinging the doors open. Marvio looking at Hiccup with amuesement in his eyes.

"You're crazy you know," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Ugh, I'm starting to believe you people."


	4. Walk

**Sorry for the wait. Thanks to everyone who has been reading, the attention drives me forward. And thanks to my beta of course! Enjoy chapter 4.**

* * *

The moon had crested the starry night sky and was hidden behind a blanket of navy clouds. The sky was silent, and even its sole occupant didn't disturb that stillness. On the back of the gliding Nightfury Hiccup remained silent, taking in the beauty of the open night. He watched without seeing as star after star flew past them. He wasn't quite sure how long they had been flying, or how far they had gotten away from Berk.

After he and Toothless had led the dragons back to the school and put them in their cages (which they had done alone to the surprise, and almost horror, of everyone else), he took some luggage from the boat (which the army had kindly sent him) and unpacked at his new place in the barracks. Then he had mulled around until that night, grabbing Toothless as soon as the sun had dipped below the sea and diving into the brilliant mauve sky.

Below them, the tranquil ocean rolled wave after wave towards a distant shore. It was hard to believe, Hiccup thought, that just a few days ago he had washed up onto shore at Berk, none the wiser to their plans. So Hiccup, with his disbelief and muddled feeling, started ranting on too Toothless.

"What am I supposed to do here? Why do I have teaching duty anyway, who decides something like that? Oi, this scrawny kid would make good teacher, yay, nay?" He said, putting on a silly voice for emphasis. "I fought so hard to get into this uptight little army but now my position is completely pointless! I kind of just want to return to the clan, we haven't seen The Alpha in a long while... What do you think bud? Just head back to our giant ice cocoon and let the clansmen do the spying?"

The dragon answered by slightly angling his wings, Hiccup adjusted the paper tail in response so Toothless would have no trouble turning. They were facing the direction of Berk.

"Thanks for the sincere empathy buddy..." Hiccup said with sarcasm. Toothless flicked his ear back. "I know, do my job, set a good example little prince. Truthfully, Toothless, I think this whole war is pointless, and I wouldn't support getting involved at all if it wasn't for the fact that they were capturing dragons. Let's hope that we find the better side quick and get this over with huh?"

Toothless grunted and tilted his head. "I have no idea what's taking the council so long. I figured it would be pretty obvious which side would treat you better."

The craggy cove that held Berk was coming into view, and at this angle he could see the towering fences of the so called Dragon Academy. The other dragons were locked away in their cages, presumably sleeping off sea sickness. They were agitated and afraid and even Hiccup knew better than to leave the cages unlocked.

"So bud, you excited about being a teacher's pet?" Hiccup asked, chuffing at his word play. The dragon huffed sarcastically. "I'm going to do my best. Hopefully my best gets me thrown out and returned to the army with anti-glowing recommendations for further teaching jobs."

* * *

"Welcome to Dragon Training!" Hiccup said, throwing his arms open as he led his new students into the academy.

"No turning back..." Astrid muttered, the first in a group of five to enter through the stone gates. The twins followed behind her.

"I hope I get some serious burns!" The boy said with a wicked smile.

"I'm hoping for some mauling, like, on my shoulder or lower back." The girl concluded, in an effeminate version of her twin's voice.

"Yeah," Astrid agreed. "it's only fun if you get a scar out of it."

' _What was with these kids and pain?_ ' Hiccup wondered. Toothless was napping in his cage, indifferent to the entrance of the students. "So," Hiccup started, "should we introduce ourselves? I'm Major Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, but call me Hiccup."

The student's sized him up with their eyes. The buff and boastful one stood forward first. "Who let you teach?" He asked, voice mocking, as he gestured to Hiccup.

"Nice to met you 'who let you teach'," Hiccup deadpanned with a smirk then glanced at his other students, all but Astrid snickered. "It'll be easier for all of us if you just spit out your names, Stoick will be happy to supply them." But still no one spoke.

It was silent for a minute, and Hiccup went to speak again when Astrid piped up. "This is Ruffnut and this is Tuffnut, twins, and this is Fishlegs," she gestured to the loud one last, "and this is Snotlout."

"Great, now that basic courtesy is out of the way you can but your bags against the wall. Let's start training right away." Hiccup said, gesturing to a wall out of the of way.

"Shouldn't we set up in the barracks first?" Fishlegs asked, politely raising his hand.

"I'm sure nobody else minds getting right into do they? No, no, nope! Let's meet your dragons." Hiccup announced as he walked towards the locked cages with a flourish, his hesitant students following him after heaving their bags against the wall. He probably could spend the day getting them to unpack and teaching some basic military stuff in the barracks, but he wanted to see how they would do with their assigned dragons first. As soon as he got to their cages he began to open the heavy iron doors.

"What are you doing?" one of the twins yelped.

"We don't have whips or shields or-or- anything to protect ourselves!" The other one piped up, almost as an extension of the first.

Hiccup faltered. Whips? He turned on one foot toward his class, who stood wide eyed and in shock at the realization of what they just said. "What do you think we're about to do?"

"Learn how to ride dragons in a war, Major Haddock," Astrid growled in a steely voice. "What do you think you're about to do? Kill us?"

"What? Kill you?" What was wrong with this town? He stared at them and slowly a picture formed in his head. He hadn't trained in any military academy, he had passed the riding test with flying colours and his eyes closed, the fact he brought his own dragon was normal since they kept their dragons from cadet training. The military wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, neither would they bother to get him to correct the ineligible name he scribbled for his academy. His clan had taught him the basic military procedure and he flew through the ranks.

He had no idea how they trained cadets.

But even he realized that he was being a bit naïve. They captured and killed dragons and he thought that training sessions would be friend building occasions? Stupid Hiccup. "I teach differently; you'll have to trust your dragons on the battlefield right?"

"You are crazy! They'll kill us if we just let them out. Dragons are killing machines!" Astrid cried out. The other cadets nodded at her statement.

"What does some lanky loser who got forced to teach here know? I'm out, this is stupid." Snotlout grumbled turning on his heals and storming out of the arena.

After a few stinging glares the other four followed. Hiccup watched helplessly as they grabbed their bags and marched out. He was going to get an earful from command when they found out about this.

* * *

"-Then they just walk out all, we don't like the way you teach you useless oaf." Toothless nodded, staring at the steaming white fish on Hiccups plate. It had several angry puncture wounds where Hiccup had stabbed it with his fork.

"What was I supposed to do? Chase after them? No way, if they aren't happy with how I teach then I don't see the reason to want them to learn. Does that make sense?" Toothless nodded again, eyes locked onto the untouched, other than some anger driven holes, fish on the plate.

Hiccup chuckled as he noticed the dragon's eyes. They dragon caught his stare and looked up, letting out a soft 'hrrrr'. A fool to the dragon's puppy eyes, Hiccup threw him the fish, which Toothless swallowed whole eagerly.

"Thanks for listening to me bud." Toothless crawled forward and nuzzled up to him. They were behind the barracks, eating supper and lounging in the soft breeze. It was completely silent to Hiccup, but Toothless's ears flicked and he opened an eye. Seconds later a shy voice called out from the front of the barrack.

"Um, Major Haddock? It's Fishlegs, I don't have a place to stay other than the barracks now. So uh, can I come in?" He asked.

"I'm around back." He called out and soon Hiccup could hear the heavy footsteps approach him. He looked up at the boy from his seat on the soft grass. The boy looked down, eyes on the dragon, which had started falling asleep as soon as the noise was identified.

"Wow! A Night fury, speed 20 stealth 18! It's seems to be surprisingly docile though?"

"Toothless is anything but, actually."

Fishlegs observed the sleeping dragon in doubt, his eyes settling on the paper tail. "If you don't mind me asking what happened to his tail?"

"Ah, It's a bit of a tale that one." Fishlegs didn't seemed deterred. Hiccup gestured and Fishlegs made himself comfortable on the ground beside him. None but Toothless observed the shadow that hid at the corner of the house.

"I lost my leg the same time he lost his tail actually. So two tales for the price of one," as Hiccup started the story he began to unconsciously stroke the dragon's head. Hiccup couldn't tell the cadet the real story, but he had practised the false one so many times it slipped out like a real memory. It was a story about a foolish cadet, an unruly dragon and a mishap that lead to the demise of an alpha, with the help of a few soldiers.

It painted him to be a real patriot, though it always fell short of the horrors the real story held for him. So though the words that left his mouth weren't the truth, the story that played alongside the lies in his head was filled with dark nostalgia.

He had been sixteen. He was still living in the ice cocoon with his tribe, the Bewilderbeast Clan. Hiccup was proficient in so many dragon type skills that he had been christened the prince when he was 6, most decidedly being the right choice when the night fury pup had crawled into his bed to sleep. The council who ran the clan until he came of age had regaled to the entire clan stories of the powers he would someday hold.

It was a bright day when things went wrong. The clan had noticed it before, dragons were disappearing. They left to hunt near a certain island and would never return. Patrols had come back with reports of a renegade alpha. Hiccup still wasn't sure who decided he was the right man to take care of it. But he figured it was a chance to kick start those amazing powers he was supposed to get.

That fight had been hell. Complete and total chaos covered with 'you really really messed up' sauce. Mostly it was him desperately trying to hang on, while pillars of flame and lightning crashed around him. Toothless could hardly keep up. The wind and the rain beat upon them and every odd was stacked against them. And Hiccup, foolish with fear, made a mistake.

He provoked the alpha, and took to the sky. Lost in clouds of terror and darkness the fight became a blind struggle for survival. But he handled it well, devising a plan that seemed brilliant in the heat of the moment. It worked too, the dancing of the three beasts made of fear and aggression would end when one died. Hiccup would make sure it wasn't him or Toothless, but that required risks. So the plan started and almost finished flawlessly. Then the mistake happened.

Falling to the ground, suspended in air and elation of their soon to be victory, Toothless had fired the winning shot. But the alpha didn't go fast, and with a final snap shredded one of Toothless's tail fins. It was during that fall Hiccup understood why he had fought it alone. No one else could so blindly sacrifice everything for the clan. But he could, it was all he had, it was where he fit in. He needed that place.

Toothless managed to protect him, in as much pain as the dragon was. But the fall had crushed his foot. It was an entire day before his clan had found him, the dragons released from the alpha's hold had returned to the cocoon. By then the wounds had festered, both his and his dragons. Healer's did all thy could but they both lost their limbs. They wore their prosthetics as a symbol of what their blind devotion had gotten them. And what, most likely, it would get them again.

Of course Fishlegs was told an edited version, but even a spy's version of his story left Fishlegs in awe. "You seriously killed an alpha! Those are huge, and they have 30 armor and 28 attack! No wonder you're a Major already!"

Hiccup smiled at the compliment, extra points to you cadet. "Should we get you set up in the barracks then? You get first choice of bunk, and presumably you'll be the only one to make a choice."

"I'm sorry about the rest of them, but even I doubted you, letting the dragons out without protection sounds crazy. Until now of course, if you can manage that then you must be good. I hope that you'll still teach. Even if I may be the only student you'll have."

"Well it's not like I can stop, this is my job now." Hiccup and Fishlegs entered the barracks, and Toothless was fast asleep out back. Neither party noticed the shadow leave.

* * *

"Okay class of one, let's get things started. I learned how to train dragons without a fancy whip so you can too!" As predicted none but Fishlegs had showed up, and neither boy really felt like it was dragon training.

"Again Major H-"

"Hiccup."

"Hiccup. I'm sorry about the rest of them." Fishlegs piped up, adding to the many times he had said this before. "

It's not your fault. Plus…" Hiccup started before he saw movement from behind Fishlegs. "They're actually right behind you...?"

The four missing cadets walked through the gate, which clanged closed behind them. Astrid once again lead them; he could see a Major in the making in her. She was the one who spoke up, the other's glanced off sheepishly.

"I heard yesterday. What you told Fishlegs about the alpha. Trust me, if that's turns out to be some big lie to make yourself sound cool you'll have worse then some boycotting students." Hiccup gulped.

Snotlout stepped up, nudging Astrid aside, and puffing his chest. "And just because we're letting you teach us doesn't mean that we think your cool. You're still a major loser. Hehe, get it, Major Loser?"

And so dragon training truly began.


	5. Class

**Chapter 5**

It had been a week since that day the students had returned. It had taken them days just to get close enough to touch the dragons, all the while Toothless watched from his cage, obviously amused. Luckily though they had each taken to the dragons Hiccup had assigned to them.

Astrid with the sky blue Deadly Nadder, which was about as perfect a match as Hiccup could hope to get. The twins had instantly fought over who got which head when presented with the Hideous Zippleback, the senseless type arguments seemingly a habit of theirs. The slow Gronkle and the stoutly boy, Fishlegs, had too, taken to each other, they seemed content in a slower pace. The Monstrous Nightmare had been given to Snotlout who was more focused on the constant power struggle the two had rather then actually getting on it's back. They had all reluctantly named them, after some prompting from Hiccup.

Astrid called hers Stormfly, Snotlout called his Hookfang, Fishlegs called his Meatlug. Tuffnut and Ruffnut named theirs a day later. They had to finish the fight over what head was which, then they fought over names. They had settled on Barf & Belch.

It hadn't taken a week for Hiccup to want to go curl up beside Toothless and watch them flail about with a blatant look of amusement also. He didn't though, and every moment he thought about that, he remembered that joy he had felt when they showed up to class everyday.

They had just finished another training session when Snotlout said the inevitable. "We've been doing these nicey nicey lessons for a week, can't we ride the dragons yet?" He was sat in his bed, polishing same of his armor so smooth he could see his reflection, and he certainly saw it. The other students were sitting around and doing their own things.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Hiccup started, he was cooking them all a small meal. The shared house had become a tight fit once the other students had moved in. They had most of their lessons outside, and eventually even some classroom lessons had to be held outside.

"We have a year of training before the exams," Fishlegs chimed in, "we still need to learn the rest of basic military conduct, flight strategy, dragon riding, dragon riding combat, and my personal favorite dragon classification."

"Well... if you're up for it then we can give it a try tomorrow. But first eat, sleep, bathe maybe." He set their dishes down at the table, the students eagerly dropped what they were doing to eat. Hiccup headed up to his room with his own meal. When he got to his own room he took a deep breath, "bathe definitely."

* * *

That morning Hiccup had the dragons saddled and ready before the cadets had even woke up. He figured that it would be better to teach them how to put the saddles on later, since in the real army the dragons were saddled by other's anyway. The dragons were as excited as their partners, stretching their wings and running around the arena playing. Toothless was the only one who didn't seem excited.

"Are you doubting me too?" Hiccup asked, sighing when the dragon didn't even blink to answer. "I can't keep them interested in patting their dragons on the heads forever, can I?" Toothless blinked slowly. The dragon looked like he was about to growl something when the bang of the barrack door caught all the dragon's attention.

Astrid stared back, wearing her cadet uniform, she must have woken up not long after himself. The cadet uniform was used for dragon riding mostly, though the bigger schools often had students wear them all the time. The ones for Berk were the same style as all the other ones but different colours.

The shirt, which was made a thick material, was a soft aqua colour. There were five silver buttons on the top, the ones on the lower part were on the inside of the shirt to give it a sleek look. The cadets were free to wear personal armor as long as it didn't cover their crest which was a sigil of the dragon they rode. Astrid's was a black silhouette of the tracker class.

The pants were black and easy to move in; they were tucked into an air of knee high riding boots. The boots came in either black and brown with two matching buttons on the top outside. Astrid had chosen the brown ones.

She walked over the sound of the riding heel more pronounced on the cobbled ground. Her eyes were on Stormfly.

"Can I try riding her?" She asked softly.

"Sure." Hiccup called Stormfly over with a whistle and the dragon responded obediently. Astrid walked over cautiously, but with an improved confidence than before. The dragon watched her approach. Hiccup could see some other students come out to, and was pleasantly surprised to find that their dragons approached them without being coaxed.

Astrid rubbed Stormfly's nose, watching the dragon nuzzle closer to her hand. She smiled softly. It shocked her how just a week ago she had refused to take lessons unless she had a weapon. Astrid moved fluidly towards the saddle, holding the side lightly, and careful raising herself into the saddle. Around her the others did the same, Hiccup just watched as Toothless hadn't been saddled.

"Where are we flying?" She asked, paying attention to how the dragon moved, clutching tightly to the bridle in her hand.

"Just stay in here for now, a few flaps up and down until you get the hang of it."

"What?" Shouted Snotlout, "How are we going to learn to fly like that. When I said fly I meant actually fly. Just because you're a wimp doesn't mean we are." With that comment he gave his dragon a harsh kick, yanking the line and with it, the Nightmare's head. The proud beast didn't like that and with a mighty sweep of it's tail it tried to throw Snotlout off his back. This started a chain reaction.

Meatlug who had lazily let Fishlegs onto his back was grazed by the tail giving the sleepy dragon a fright. It twisted in a delayed attempt to avoid it and Fishlegs and the dragon toppled over. They in turn bumped into the twins, who were already distracted by which was riding which head. Not prepared for the incoming dragon they fell from their own with harsh thumps onto the stone ground. Lastly, Barf tripped up with Belch, who was avoiding Ruffnut and bumped right into Stormfly. The dragon jumped back and Astrid fell to the ground.

Now dismounted, the students scrambled back in a desperate attempt to avoid the now frenzied dragons, who either were stumbling to stay on their feet or avoid the other dragons and the cadets. Toothless let out a screech trying to calm them, but hearing the quiet dragon scream just seemed to worsen the anxiety.

Soon the arena had become a mess of nervous screeching dragons and frightened cadets and Hiccup was still trying to keep up with the domino effect that had just happened. When the students had managed to crawl to the walls of the arena on pure instinct and Hiccup had shushed Toothless he dealt with the dragons.

He stepped in quickly, both hands raised and remaining as calm as he could. The first dragon he reached was Hookfang, the first domino. He raised his hand, placing one on the dragon's nose and the other underneath it's jaw. He looked in it's eyes, remaining calm and the dragon let out a halted breath. He helped Meatlug up and the dragon calmed quickly. Barf and Belch had managed to calm themselves down and stuck their heads over for Hiccup to pat. He rubbed their scaly necks before looking over at Stormfly.

The dragon was staring at Astrid, who had her back against the wall. The dragon looked almost apologetic but Astrid looked upset. Not at the dragon, Hiccup thought, but with herself. The dragons themselves had gone back to the center of the arena, none the wiser of how they had scared their partners.

"That's enough for today, it's probably better to let everyone calm down." The other students nodded blankly.

"Is it usually like this?" Fishlegs asked, raising his shaking hand. Hiccup walked over to them as they started to stand.

"No, that was a certain over achiever's fault." Hiccup started as he nodded his head in Snotlout's direction. "Tomorrow we can try again if you want, I wanted to get some things fixed on my own saddle anyway so it benefits me to cut this short. Are you guys fine with stopping now?"

"It's fine." Astrid huffed, brushing dust from her pants and storming back to the barracks. The other cadets followed in silence. It had gone much worse then Hiccup had expected.

* * *

After unsaddling all the dragons and returning them to their cages, he did fix a small tear in his own saddle. It had several scars which had been repaired with various colours of string. The saddle was old but he had made it at the forge at his clan. It used some of the finest materials they had. He wasn't about to trade it for a military issued saddle. He had just finished when Toothless had bounded over and wiggled his little, 'let's fly' wiggle. Seconds later he and his dragon were dancing through the sky.

Astrid watched from inside the barracks, her peers were grumbling behind her. She watched as the small figures flew through the sky, looping and twirling with the ease of professionals. The ability they displayed in a minute topped what they had just done by 100000%. Her cheeks still burned with embarrassment.

"He's amazing!" Came an excited voice from behind her, it was Fishlegs, who watched the aerobatics with sparkling eyes.

"Yeah," She replied in a quiet voice, "so is his dragon."

"It must have been hard for him in the army."

"How so?"

"Yeah, he's a Major already I doubt he had a hard time." Called out Snotlout, the twins mumbled through their mouthful of hardtack bread in agreement.

"That's exactly why. He's the same age as us but he had to command people older than him, probably people who had served longer than him. I doubt they liked that. And he knows all these maneuvers so well he must practise all the time."

"He must really love this country." Astrid murmured.

"Not as much as I love this country." Snotlout said, rooting through the hardtack bag that the twins had been hoarding.

"I want to be able to fly like that." Fishlegs says, ignoring Snotlout's comment and instead watching as the figure loops through the sky.

"Me too." Astrid says almost dreamily. "We'll have to practise hard, like he did. And we're going to have to get back on the dragons."

"Of course were getting back on the dragons, one little mishap won't stop us." Snotlout muttered sitting down on his bed with his own hardtack. Astrid rolled her eyes, they hadn't been shaken up for long.

In the sky the dragon stopped its aerobatics and started to fly straight towards the forest, they watched until the two were out of sight. They all knew that someday they wanted to ride a dragon like that.

* * *

Hiccup had returned to the barracks much later, when the sky was stained by dusk and the students were all studying their books by themselves. In his hand he clutched a sealed letter. He didn't greet his students even though they looked up at him as he walked in. He headed straight up the stairs.

As soon as he got up there he opened the letter and glanced at the thick black ink. As he and Toothless were flying the caught sight of a rider-less dragon approaching the island. They went to greet it and saw that there was a letter tied to it. It had the Bewilderbeast seal and Hiccup had spent some time in the forest reading it over and over before returning.

Now he read it again.

" _Hiccup, we wouldn't contact you so recklessly unless it was important, which you know. Something is happening in the Vitikean court, we don't yet know what. Lips are tight but soldiers seem to be avoiding the court more and more. We don't think they've noticed the spies in the court or they would have acted by now. Since you are the only spy in their higher ranks we hope that your return may bring us more information. We have won you some favour back in the court and although you haven't been gone long we recommend that you write a request for transfer. If something is up we need to know soon,_

 _The council of the Bewilderbeast clan."_

And once again, Hiccup found himself writing a letter he didn't really want to. He had influenced the training of these cadets, they were doing well too. Today's failure had been a minor setback and his leaving might bring the wrong idea to them. But even with the regret he dipped his quill into the black ink and started to write.

" _I courteously acquire your acknowledgement of my request, I feel my skills would be better utilized in the ranks of..."_


	6. Flight

**This chapter is pretty short, sorry! But after this it really starts to take off. (** **If only I would sit my lazy butt down and write it that is** **.) Thanks to Fireloom for the great work! I hope you all enjoy, and thank you for all the support!**

* * *

It was the wee hours of the morning when the messenger entered the barracks, waking up all but two cadets to receive a letter from Major Haddock to the army. He didn't understand why it was so urgent. But as he accepted the letter he felt the burning stare of the wild blonde the entire time. The letter was heavy, sealed with the official military seal and signed in cursive black letters.

He had been tasked with carrying confidential letters before but this one looked very official. He felt the weight of it in his satchel as he set off towards the docks, the letter was to leave immediately and the reply would return on one of the fastest ships they had. It would be done in a day or two.

What he didn't expect was a figure moving with the stealth of an assassin and clobbering him on the head just as he turned the corner. Above him stood the wild-eyed blonde, holding a wooden practise sword.

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt." Said Snotlout coming around the bend behind her, he was followed by Ruffnut. Astrid grunted, rooting through his bag for the letter. What was so important that he had to send the letter this late at night? And after they had made such a huge mistake? They needed to make sure he wasn't asking them to close the academy or something.

"So what does it say?" Asked Ruffnut. Astrid carefully peeled away at the still soft wax seal. The letter opened to reveal delicate cursive writing, not something she expected. Though it made sense, no one became a Major without sending a few letters to a few important individuals.

"He wants to request a transfer back into the military, he feels like he could be better used there."

"Why? Cause we messed up today? Well, maybe we will get a better teacher." Snotlout huffed.

"Well, I don't really want him to leave thinking that we're bad students." Ruffnut muttered. He nudged the unconscious messenger with his foot before smirking and kneeling beside the messenger. Astrid rolled her eyes when she saw what he was doing.

"Let's go back and tell the others, I don't want him to leave either."

Ten minutes later the messenger woke up, all letters in his bag and nothing taken but his left sock. He would blame trolls for tripping him up. Silently he cursed his parents for naming him Irith, a beautiful name that everyone loved. Except for trolls.

* * *

The cadets acted so well the next day. Hiccup almost wanted to get on Toothless and stop the letter before it reached the capital. His ties to the clan were the only thing that stopped him. Even the dragons behaved and listened to their riders intently. By the afternoon all of them were flying up and down in the small arena with no difficulty.

Hiccup knew that if the transfer came through and they couldn't fly a dragon by the time the next instructor arrived the dragons would be subject to a much more painful and gruelling training. So, after a quick lunch, he lead the cadets out to the yard and saddled Toothless.

"We're going to try flying now, okay. You must stay calm, pay attention to you dragon and most importantly listen to me. I don't want an accident because one of you thinks they can do a barrel roll or shoot lasers from your eyes." Hiccup quipped. "This is to get a feel for your dragons, got it?" The students nodded intently and Hiccup began to open the gate. Slowly each dragon walked out, stretching their wings to full length and lifting their heads. Toothless was excited too but he walked at the back of the group slowly, making sure everyone stayed calm.

The soft breeze couldn't be felt inside the grey walls of the arena but here it raced around their bodies. The students and the dragons had become visibly excited. Hiccup couldn't blame them. That feeling of soaring through the air on the back of your dragons was incomparable to any other experience that the world had to offer.

"Everyone stay with me, okay? Slow and steady now let's get into the air."

"Yes sir!" Was the collective response.

The dragons rose under their riders' command. Soon the array of dragons had all taken to the air, not even the most prideful of the bunch could hide the twinkle in their eyes. Then slowly they moved forward, the light wind catching under their wings as they rose. Soon all of Berk could be seen above them.

"Let's head over the ocean so no one has to clear you off the cobble." Hiccup shouted out, speaking again with his authoritative voice. Soon the 6 were above the stretch of the ocean, picking up speed as they got more and more comfortable with each other. Hiccup didn't speak, he didn't give orders, he didn't teach. He observed.

Observed the way that Astrid's hand brush slightly against her dragon's' neck as she tried to stay in front of the group. The way that the twins, who fight about the drop of a hat, work in unity to lead their dragon through the air. How the prideful Snotlout is so locked into his flight that he can't be bothered to try to be cool. The way that Meatlug is wide awake and happy, wearing matching expressions with his partner. They were all riders right now, not soldiers.

Each one was smiling, flying through the air on their partners. Hiccup could hear them speaking to each other.

"This is amazing!"

"Breathtaking!"

They were thrilled and honestly they were all naturals. Hiccup could have set them on dragons and they probably could've fought in the war without any training. Even now he could see the slight non-verbal ques passing from rider to dragon. He hopped that this was something that they had picked up from his lessons. It excited him how much they had learned and how much they could respect there dragons.

 _'This will all be ruined when the new instructor comes.'_

That single thought was the only thing that kept Hiccup from enjoying the flight as much as his students. The students noticed it too, other than his excitement at the beginning he had been tame for the rest of the flying lesson.

"Master Haddock?"

"Yes Astrid?" came the timid reply, the Major was fixated on something on the horizon. Nothing anyone else could see.

"I- well actually, we read your letter. To the army. The request for transfer." Astrid started hesitantly, the co-conspirators instantly reacted, jerking around to look at her.

It took a second for what she said to click, then Hiccup turned to her in shock. "You did _what_? Do you realise reading someone else's mail is an imperial offence? Your lucky that I'm not the kind to report that stuff! More serious, a Major's mail they would've… oh what they would've done to you. You didn't take the letter though, did you?"

"No! We just read it, we were worried since we had done so bad yesterday. We thought you wanted to get the dragon's taken away." Astrid cried back. The dragons had taken control as their masters spoke, and only Hiccup realized they were flying towards Berk again.

"You read it then?"

"Yes, all of it. We want to know why you want to leave Hiccup. Is it because we couldn't fly the dragons that first time? We're flying them now aren't we?"

"It isn't like that. That was an honest mistake, none of you are to blame. Don't feel bad about it, okay?" They answered with a few quiet "yes's".

"The reason I want to leave has nothing to do with you guys. I just, well, I fell that a would be a better fighter than a teacher. I have enjoyed this time but I feel like I've done all I can for you."

"S-sorry Major Haddock," stuttered Fishlegs hesitantly, "but we've seen you flying on Toothless and I don't think that we've even scratched the surface of your knowledge."

Hiccup could only over a sad sigh and a bow of his head. His brown locks fell in front of his eyes blocking the tired look that held them. "Maybe so," he started again after a second, "let's finish this lesson. We can talk at the barracks tonight."

* * *

The dragons had happily entered their cages, tired from the first flight they had had in weeks.

They talked long into the night, discussing and re-discussing but Hiccup stood firm, in appearance, at least. Inside he was waging a war, his loyalty and his desire to stay, clashing together. It was the fact that the letter had most likely reached the court that allowed him to stay so steadfast on his transfer, if it were even to happen. The students seemed to think that he wasn't good enough to serve. Or perhaps that was just their wishful thinking.

He was surprised they had even gone out of their ways to debate him like this. They did everything short of actually asking him to stay. Which, honestly, was quite a relief to Hiccup. He just wasn't sure if he could give a definite no if they asked. The nagging in his head, a almost silent whisper of you don't belong fueled him through every other part of the argument.

Soon the students began to drift off, dipping their heads in mid sentence or lying down actively leaving the conversation. Hiccup stayed up until the last of the questions had been asked and each student had finally fallen asleep.

Finally, he crawled into his own bed, satisfied that he had at the very least allowed his students to see that violence wasn't the only way to fly a dragon.


	7. Queasy

Hiccup woke up to a subtle noise. He sat up, alert and then stood, quietly enough not to wake the students downstairs, and rushed to the window. He could see Astrid, tip-toeing across the arena; the noise was the front door closing. The figure slipped across the grey stone heading towards the dragon cages.

Hiccup was surprised to see her stop at her dragon's cage, and not just look in but also sit down, criss-cross, in front of the bared gates. She must have been talking to her dragon since he could hear a faint churl of response, followed by the girl's laughter. Hiccup wasn't sure if he should go out, but he had a good excuse; The dragons' morning exercise.

He changed quickly and walked down the stairs, past the snoring students and out into the frosty morning air. His breath formed a cloud in front of his face, the chill settling into him as soon as his feet hit the ground. He closed the door quickly, to preserve the heat in the barracks. Astrid didn't seem to hear him as he approached.

"Good morning Astrid." He finally spoke when he was right beside her. She didn't react.

"Good morning Major."

Hiccup sighed, even after he had told all the students to stop with the title a few kept it up inconsistently. He didn't bother to say anything about it though, which might be the reason that they didn't stop. Instead of replying, he began to crank the cage door open.

"You're letting her out?!" Astrid squealed, jumping up off the ground as the cage began to open.

"Yeah just to let them stretch their wings, do you mind?"

"Of course, I… I mean go ahead," She stuttered, breaking sentence and staring at the ground. Hiccup broke out with a huge grin as the door swung open. Stormfly sprung out, happily greeting her rider. Astrid's embarrassment was forgotten and she reached out, rubbing the dragon on the snout gently. As she did, Hiccup started to let out the other dragons, who walked out of their cages, stretching as he had said they would. Toothless nosed opened his own cage which Hiccup still refused to lock, and stretched his back, arcing it low and wagging his tail slightly when he caught Hiccups eye.

Hiccup smiled and walked over to his dragon, who had come out of his stretch bouncing excitedly. "No buddy we're not flying yet." Hiccup said with a smile of familiarity to the dragon.

"It's like you understand him; it's amazing actually." Astrid said, causing him to jump at her sudden appearance by his side. He caught her slight revenge smirk.

"We spent most of our lives together, but we have always had a strong connection. This big ball of night can't get enough of me, can he?" Hiccup chuckled as he rubbed Toothless' head roughly. The dragon lolled it tongue and pushed up against Hiccups side.

"Do you have any siblings Major?" Astrid asked, reaching out to Toothless, who gladly accepted the petting she offered.

"No, I don't have any," he started, "Neither do you, I've heard."

Astrid sighed, "of course you have, I guess not many people haven't. It doesn't help that my family is one of the only noble families in Berk, everyone was expecting a male heir to be born." Astrid explained with a somber expression as her hand moved to scratch at Toothless' jaw, "My parents say that they don't even have a female heir, their joking sure but I think that they know that I want to do other things... They're great. As for siblings though, Berk isn't that big, everyone here grew up really close to each other, the other cadets are like my cousins at least. I never lacked in companionship." she continued, her words silenced for a moment as her hand fell by her side. "But with you I can't tell, you are good at talking sure but, you always seem to be lying." Hiccup stiffened at her words, his petting halted for only a second. He doesn't like where this is going...

"There is something up with you. You chose your words carefully; you chose your jokes carefully. I think your hiding something... and I think your past has something to do with it." Astrid finished, her voice low and casual, as if she weren't really accusing him of dishonesty.

"I don't know what your talking about." Hiccup stated with a clipped tone as he took a step back, composure was key in this. "You can't seem to stop saying it so I'm surprised I have to remind you." Hiccups shoulders tensed as he spoke, choosing his words carefully. "I am a Major, I have secrets, military secrets, secrets that could turn the tides of war. You learn to watch your words in this kind of business." He was angry now; frightened and uneasy. he tried to relax his muscles and pull the frown from the corner of his mouth.

 _"_ I. Am. A. Spy, _I know how to lie, I can trust in my lies, I rank over her. Lying may rhyme with spying but that doesn't mean she knows."_ He bit his lip in an attempt to hide his smile at his last comforting thought.

"What?" Astrid snapped, put of balance by his sudden attack. He let the smile form on his mouth and his eyes wonder back to toothless from their fixed gaze on her face.

"Sorry, it's just that it's nice to see someone so naive every once in awhile." Astrid scrunched her face in either disgust, embarrassment or anger, or a mixture of the three. Hiccup noticed her look our of the corner of his eyes and immediately panicked. "Not like that!" He blurted out and then chuckled nervously, springing to his own defense.

Her face seemed to not want to change from her irritated and confused look so Hiccup continued to explain himself. "In court you learn to expect lies, you expect people to tell you only the truths they want you to know. It's all confusing and I stay out of it the best I can, but a Major doesn't rise through the ranks without a little sweet talking and poisonous honeyed words. Habits that can get you places stick fast and stay put. I don't mean it in a bad way when I say that your naivety is refreshing, it really is to me. It's like, like, I'm interacting with real people again when I'm with you guys."

Astrid just stared at him, watching as he spoke listening to the words. Her next sentence slipped out before she could stop it, "That sounded real."

"Haha it did, didn't it? Quite unlike me." Hiccup said with a lilt of playful sarcasm. Beneath the hand resting on his dragons back he could feel Toothless settle, the flight or fight melting from his body as soon as it did from Hiccups own.

Astrid turned away from Hiccup, the conversation reaching its end and instead watched as the dragons lumbered around, chirping at each other and playfully fighting. The beasts had started wrestling while they had talked and were now just settling down again. "They're so different from what I imagined," she finally commented.

"Not the killing beasts they've been portrayed as are they." Hiccup replied.

"It hard to imagine that in the past they were slaughtering us by the hundreds." Astrid murmured as her own dragon sauntered up to her and she started to stroked its head.

"We were slaughtering them by the thousands."

"Yeah, I guess we were. It's sad to think about..." Astrid resigned, looking slightly shameful before she perked up again. "Though you must have heard about that clan, right? The one that protects the dragons." Hiccups previous tension rise against he looked to her. Yes, he knew this clan... much more personally than she would ever even imagine.

"There are even stories that the man who first rode the dragons was the founder of that clan! The uuh- Bewilderbeast Clan, I think, formed in the time of Vikings. We're trying to get their alliance, aren't we?" she asked casually. "because they could supply dragons. Have you heard about them? Certainly you must have, if only a little?"

A lump formed in Hiccups throat, he knew how to formally discuss the clan, but informally... How much should he say when it comes to this?

"Hiccup?"

"I- uh…"

A booming voice echoed from out the arena, drawing the attention of every occupant. "Major Hiccup!"

"Ah Iris! Has the letter arrived?" Hiccup turned from his conversation with Astrid, infinitely relieved to draw away from that potentially treacherous subject, and started walking to the edge of the arena nearest to the messenger. Astrid glared daggers in the back of his head before shuffling after him.

"Yes sir, sealed, signed and hand delivered." Hiccup held out his hand and gestured for the messenger to drop it down. He didn't feel like ushering the dragons to their cages just so the messenger could enter. Iris complied, he was quite subservient by nature. The letter was heavy enough to have a straight descent, and Hiccup caught it and drew it to his chest easily.

"Thank you for the hard work. Stop by the academy later and I'll have your pay and a little something extra for the speedy delivery."

The mans smile brightened instantly, "Thank you Major!" He nodded to Astrid, a weird nostalgia flickering across his face, before hurrying of to complete the rest of his early bird delivery.

Hiccup hurriedly opened the letter, leaving Astrid to stay quiet out of respect. She watched as his green eyes skimmed across the page, darting back and forth and saw his eyes become dark. He looked furious, his hand clutching the edge of the paper and the snarl that hid beneath his soft features becoming pronounced.

"Toothless," he snapped, "get the dragons in their cages. Astrid the lessons for today are cancelled, tell the other cadets."

Toothless and Hiccup worked quickly, in sync with each other as the dragons were herded and subsequently locked into their cages. Astrid listened as they rushed about, taking slow steps back to the barracks. She wanted to know what was on that letter that had such an affect on him...

She heard his footsteps approach, and turned around to speak to him. To her shock he just stepped around her, still reading the letter and walking fast. He threw open the door to the barracks, it slammed against the outside wall and surprised yelps from her formerly sleeping peers could be heard from where she stood. She hurried to catch up to Hiccup, but only managed to watch as an angry stomp completed his journey up the steps and his private door slammed behind him. The 'do not disturb' was implied by the sliding of it's heavy lock clicking soundly into place.

Hiccup read the letter, written in the choppy writing of his superior with a sense of hate and dread. For who he wasn't yet sure. But the words resounded in his head like someone was screaming in his ear, constant and grating.

 _'17 missing dragon rider pairs', 'evidence of violence', 'they chances of any living diminishes everyday', 'we believe that the Bewilderbeast clan may be involved', '_ _ **You would not be safe here**_ ' _._

 _'It was impossible'_ Hiccup thought, the council took some liberties in his absences but surly something as criminal as this would not even be considered under his command or any other. The clan supported the idea of peace between humans and dragons, they didn't degrade humans, even those who misused the dragons. Everyone was ignorant without the proper teachings.

There was one name that stood out from the others: 1st Lieutenant Orri, a long time friend of Hiccups, one of the few soldiers that respected dragons. She and Hiccup had served in a smaller unit for awhile, even though Hiccup was quickly promoted they stayed in touch. He had visited her and her wife for dinner many times, he had watched their children when they wanted to spend a special day together before Orri's next deployment.

She was one of the few soldiers that he truly admired, an honorable woman. She had done nothing more to her enemy then they had done to her allies. She did not deserve this, that he knew. The others on the list brought back no memory, but didn't hurt any less. They were all mostly low ranking but every single one rode dragons.

Why? Why were they considering the clan's involvement? Had the clan made a mistake and been spotted near the military zones during a scouting mission? _Had_ they been taking the dragons? It just didn't make sense for the clan to do it, from any perspective. Right now they were a possible ally to both armies, they wouldn't be harmed. But even if their powers with dragons were feared who was to say that if they were defined as enemies, both sides would not play their part in eradicating them.

Hiccup was pacing, reading over the letter, which was three pages thick. This was why they had sent him away. They were afraid that he may be lost if the people doing this started to become braver. Or that if it was the clan they may want to free the honoured Nightfury.

They weren't going to transfer him back. But on the tiny upside he knew why the court was stressed anyway. Yet the letter still spoke to him, had his clan done this? He felt guilty to even consider it, but he knew that he should follow his gut, quell his worries before it interfered with his work. He picked out the important information that the letter contained and jotted it down in code in his journal. He slid open his lock and opened the door marching down the stairs. The students stood at their beds, looking nervous. He felt bad for acting out but he didn't have time to apologize.

He carried the letter to the fireplace and knelt before it, lying the papers on the hot embers, the flames had all but died without supervision, he wondered if the cadets had been waiting for him. The letter started to burn slowly, and remembering the previous mail reading offense as he stood and stomped on the letters, burying them in the embers and soot, dirtying his boot while he was at it, and sending out a flare of sparks. One of the students stepped forward to quickly stomp out the tiny embers spreading to the carpet.

"M-major?" Questioned Fishlegs, who stood cautiously across the room. "Did they not accept the transfer?"

"Uh yes -no, no they didn't." He stuttered, feeing light headed after the sudden news. "I'm leaving for the day, maybe unto the next as well. Lessons are cancelled until my return. That's it, uh… you're all dismissed from duties, so go visit family or something. Though you have to come back here to do your daily chores, of course."

"And where do you think your going?" Barked Astrid, finally at the end of her wits with the upset Major. He wasn't acting like himself.

"I'm going home." And as he called back leaving the barracks quickly, his confusion and anger being wrongly taken out on the others. Toothless was already outside, looking as somber as his master. Toothless was saddled in record time and Hiccup wasted no precious seconds with pleasantries and goodbyes to his students. He was stopped only for a second when Astrid handed something to him; a satchel filled with food.

"Be safe okay? Come back soon... I hope that what ever happened gets sorted out quickly."

"Thanks Astrid... and I'm sorry that I must leave during your lessons. Just feed the dragons in their cages. I should be back before they get too restless. Don't throw litter in their cages, and keep the children away." He joked half-heartedly.

Astrid nodded and gave him a sad smile. He smiled back and at the same time tutted Toothless into action. Soon they were out of the arena and zipping through the sky. They flew as fast as they could, so that the dark thoughts couldn't keep up.

We will save them bud."


	8. Home

**It's been awhile but here is chapter 8. I hope you enjoy.**

 **Thanks to my beta Fireloom for the continued support and editing! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or followed.**

* * *

The flight was a long one, yet they didn't stop once. Hiccup hugged the saddle the entire time, ignoring the numbness in his legs and arms. Had he not left so early he wouldn't have arrived until the next day, but the island was coming into view beside the moon. Despite the dire situation that had led him here he couldn't help but feel happy to finally be home. Even Toothless seemed excited to finally see the island, or perhaps he was just excited to stop flying.

Bursting from the ice cocoon were two dragons and their riders, scouts come to see the approaching fliers. Hiccup slowed to greet them, easing his aching body into a more upright position. He had to use his hand as a ballast. Toothless slowed even more when he heard the pained moan that escaped Hiccup's lips.

One of the scouts recognized Hiccup, he said something to his partner before calling out, "Prince! We weren't expecting you. You could have sent a letter!"

"I figured that it'd be faster to come in person. You know... Nightfury and all." The scout chuckled, flying past Hiccup slightly so he could turn around again. He flew wingtip to wingtip with the major and his beast. The other scout had headed back to the mountain to announce his arrival.

"It's nice to see you, Hiccup. It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"War does keep one busy." Hiccup grit his teeth as Toothless started to lean into the turn for the entrance.

"You okay?"

"I flew here from Berk without stopping... Everything hurts, even my legs." The scout smiled and his own dragon turned into the entrance as well. Soon they were bursting into a cavern filled with dragons.

The dragons at the mountain outnumbered the people 3:1, and as soon as they entered the flurry of colourful wings and the mixture of cries was could be overwhelming. To Hiccup though, it was all part of home.

The entire space was covered in green moss and lichen. With help from geothermal heating, the inside remained a lovely temperature despite the fact it was encased in a sculpture of ice. Toothless landed right away, only to be mobbed by a group of curious dragons. They hardly noticed Hiccup sliding off him and stumbling away.

The scout that had greeted him, waved as he ran off to report back. Hiccup just nodded in return and leaned against a nearby wall, wishing the pain away. It took mere seconds for the council to appear, a man to help Hiccup walk was supplied and a doctor to check on him was summoned. In minutes he was feeling like a prince again, pampered but constantly attending meetings.

The council didn't wait for the check up to end, they didn't even let him go to the clinic. The doctor came to the meeting room, where Hiccup was eased into a wooden chair and had his feet propped up on another. The doctor got busy, and so did the council. He ended up repeating what he had been told in the letter from the army while having his wound redressed. Meaning his explanation was interrupted by a few "ow's" and at least two different, "it's still too tight." The doctor was basically a vet moonlighting as a general practitioner, who also had a hard time remembering humans weren't as hardy as dragons...

The council listened to the story and spoke briefly between themselves. Then the leader of the council, Valka, spoke, "We have rescued five dragons around this area," she gestured to a cluster of islands on the map laid out on the table. "They all had injuries that appeared to be from other dragons, we just assumed they were from a battle and took them in. Perhaps some of them are the missing dragons. Still I'm shocked that you would see the need to come all this way just to clarify that we are not kidnapping humans."

"Sorry," Hiccup said sheepishly, "I think the military is getting to me, I can't trust anyone. I already feel better just being here, I realize it was foolish now."

"Well, I can't say that I'm not glad to see you anyway, Hiccup."

"Me too mom," Hiccup said with a smile, she rolled her eyes not bothering to remind him to call her by her title during meetings.

"Maybe you should stay awhile, request some leave? It might be good for you to remember what you are fighting for." Hiccup could see the sympathy in her eyes. He slid his eyes away.

"I know what I am fighting for." He mumbled.

"When was the last time you and Toothless went exploring? When was the last time you spent your day in the forge slaving over hot coals to make something for no reason, Hiccup? You don't have time to enjoy your life anymore, you can hardly blame me for wanting you to take some time to look at what you can have without a war. When we finally end this, I want you to be excited because of our win, not still reeling because you've been a soldier for too long."

She paused for a second, collecting her thoughts. With a hard look Valka started again. "You're on the fast track to becoming an Admiral for an army that is still technically your enemy, you don't even want or need that position yet you have to fight for it. So I just want you to taste what you're really fighting for again."

He sighed, "yeah I get it, but I need to save these soldiers. One of them is a friend." He looked for the understanding in his mother's eyes and found it. The rest of the council did not interfere until Valka nodded for them to go ahead. They began their familiar little fight-discussions.

"Since this is a serious situation, and it seems you have no plans for a break perhaps we should prepare for you to leave immediately?"

"No," another councilman interjected, "let the clan see him, it will raise the moral. I feel that our decision will have to be made soon."

"Yes, I agree with Killi, we should let him visit his friends, perhaps even he could use the moral upbringing."

"Does the rest of the council agree that he should stay for a short period before returning to his station?" There were a number of murmurs of agreement and it was settled. Hiccup, having gotten used to having his choices made for him, consented with silence.

* * *

The kids were gathered around him, telling him one after another about the dragons they befriended and how they were all doing in their lessons. The elder kids told of their flying exploits and some about how they were already in working positions. The adults mostly spoke of important happenings; marriages, births, deaths and the like.

They could see his eyelids drooping as the night wore on, and it came to no one's surprise that as Hiccup made his way around his home, visiting and talking, he became sleepier and slower in his movements.

He finally fell asleep visiting the dragon nursery, a baby nightmare curled up in his lap and Toothless fast asleep, acting as seat for Hiccup. The council didn't dare wake him right away, as the people of the clan seemed at ease with the oddball back in place. It was truly a wonder how a figurehead simply being there could bring such calmness to the clan.

When the night was half way through the council finally woke him, ushering him back up to the top of the mountain. His mother stood waiting with his saddle and several charters and scrolls.

"To help with your mission," she said stacking the papers into the saddlebags after she had tacked up Toothless. She watched Hiccup get on the dragon with a smile on her face. "I noticed that you already have a packed lunch, it's not very Hiccup-like to pack ahead. Did someone make it for you?"

"Mom!" He hissed. She just gave him a goofy smile. He rolled his eyes, "I'll miss you."

"Good job changing the subject. You know that I miss you too son, but the war will end soon, so then we won't have to worry about each other so much." She hugged Hiccup, who hugged back. He really did miss her.

"Now go be good, stay safe and good luck with the lunch-packer."

"Bigger worries mom, like, hmm I don't know… The war maybe?"

Valka just laughed him off, and gave Toothless a quick pat. After a few more good byes the two were off again, they would not arrive in Berk until the afternoon the next day. Though they wasted an hour at a nice island where they split the packed lunch.

* * *

He arrived back at Berk just before the storm ravished the island... He had only been gone a day and a half but that was all the time it took for the storm to move over the large cliff facing village. As he and Toothless circled the academy the first few raindrops started to fall from the menacing grey clouds above. They could see the barracks; a steady trail of smoke pouring from the chimney.

As soon as they landed Toothless bounded over to his cage, briefly stopping to greet the other dragons. Hiccup just continued to the barracks, carrying the leather satchel filled with the charters and scrolls. As he reached forward to open the door it swung open, nearly smacking him across the face. Astrid tumbled out looking slightly flustered, holding the door half closed behind her, blocking his view with her body.

She looked up at Hiccup, then coolly straightened herself. "Welcome back Major. Where 'ya been?"

Hiccup flinched as another raindrop fell onto his face. "It's where I'm going that concerns you," he grumbled. She just stood there giving him a confused look. With a roll of his eyes Hiccup started to move around her and into the barracks. "You're in my way."

"Oh."

The other students sat at the small table where they ate supper, spread out on the table was a haphazard pile of cards and a few silver-grey coins in the middle, though curiously enough none of the students had cards in their hands. His students had turned into delinquent gamblers in a day and a half...

Fishlegs was the first to speak and his comment stung a little, "you came back!"

"Of course I came back," he murmured, Astrid followed him in and closed the door behind her. Outside the rain could be heard growing steadily heavier.

"Are we going to start training again?" asked Ruffnut.

"It's raining right now numb-nut," Tuffnut jeered.

"I know that. I meant later lame brain."

"Not today," Hiccup answered hastily, stopping the other twin from continuing the sibling bickering. "I have some work to do so maybe not for awhile either. Are the dragons all well?"

"Yeah, I took care of them." Astrid said, she had returned to her spot at the table along with a smirking Snotlout. Each one turned in their seats and stared at Hiccup, leaning towards each other, obscuring his view of their game.

"Thank you Astrid. Now I've got to… get to that work. So, I'm going upstairs, be, uh, be good." Hiccup stumbled over his words, suddenly feeling awkward being stared down by all his students. He gave them a lopsided smile and headed up to his room.

He heard the students relieved sighs; though he didn't see them brush away the cards to reveal a charred letter.

* * *

Hiccup poured over every inch of the charters that lay in a circle around him. He sat on the ground reaching over a map to mark a note on another. Lines covered the maps like frost on a window, they obscured Hiccups view of all the names of towns and islands. Yet slowly a pattern was forming.

Outside the rain was beating against the side of the house, thunder so loud it shook a jar of Hiccups' pencils off his desk. Hiccup gratefully reached over and picked up one of the unbroken ones as his had grown dull, then simply continued working. Below him he could hear the faint footsteps as the other went about their day. As time trickled forward, the faint smell of supper drifted into his room.

But his mind threw all that away when he finally finished his work, a series of lines and dots marking the soldier positions when they were taken and their routes, which he knew from the armies' documents. Of course, the Vitikean army was missing the final key to the puzzle, the location at which the missing dragons were rescued. Hiccup had managed to trace it all to a supposedly uninhabited island a days travel from Berk.

It was an instant reaction, going from sitting on the floor to packing his bags for travel. He rushed about grabbing clothes, a blanket, canteen and other travel supplies. He had two leather satchels stuffed full when he was finished. He grabbed his sword, which had gotten no use since he had arrived in Berk, he also checked to make sure his armor wasn't in need of repair.

When he was finally satisfied with his packing he started towards his door, only to be reminded of something when his hand touched the handle. The loud crash of thunder outside and a surprised yelp from one of the boys told Hiccup he wouldn't be leaving just yet, he would have to wait for the storm to end.

With nothing left to do but wait, Hiccup walked over to his bed. He clambered in and under the unmade covers. It wasn't long before he drifted off. The exhausted prince lay half on-half off the bed, sleeping soundly through the raging storm.

* * *

A knock at his door woke him from his dreamless sleep. He listened for a second, not to the knock but to the outside. No rain, he thought. Birdsong.

"Overslept... No, no!" Hiccup growled. He was up and out of his bed, reaching for his bags within seconds. Outside his door, the knocking became a voice.

"Overslept for what?" Astrid asked.

"For nothing. What are you doing here?" Was his clipped reply, he grabbed his boots and hurriedly put them on. He kicked his maps out of the way trying to hide the careful set up he had left it in overnight. Then he opened the door for Astrid.

"I was wondering if we were having lessons today?"

"Nope, sorry, no lessons. I have to go so if you could just…" Hiccup tried to slide past her, but she held her arm out, resting on the edge of the doorway.

"Where are you going again in such a hurry? Don't think your little disappearances haven't been noted. I want to know what's going on. You hardly even addressed being refused your transfer. No one drops that kind of news that fast, so you better start talking." Astrid bounded out as she took a moment to peer past him into the room.

"I don't..."

"Whatever it is, it'd better not involve that." She quipped, nodding towards the maps scattered on the floor. In his haste Hiccup had managed to scatter them about but the one that sat on top was the one he should have hidden. The location circled several times with lines running to it from berk and written in pencil the words _"fastest route"_ boldly above it.

"I- I know this looks bad but trust me. You see…" Behind him a draft from downstairs rolled glass jar of pencils, causing even more to topple out. Astrid looked past him curiously but he moved to block her view. "Haha you got me! I'm planning a vacation for a friend! I'll be down in a sec so…"

Astrid started to look to the other side of the door. Hiccup moved with her. She glared at him spitefully then with a humpf moved back.

"If you're going to be like that then fine, but _this_ is for running off," and as she spoke she drew back her leg and kicked him in the shin. Hiccup gasped but aside from gripping the door frame a little harder and taking some weight off his leg, he didn't move. He was about to tell her _"nice try"_ when she spoke again, cutting him off.

"And this," she stopped mid sentence and Hiccup pulled back his leg so her only option was the metal one. But with a smirk she stretched her leg forward before he could react and hooked it behind the prosthesis. Then bracing herself with the doorframe, she yanked forward. Hiccup fell back and slammed against the ground, "is for everything else." she finished. With Hiccup on the ground, she had a clear view of everything, including the packed bags.

"Your leaving!?"

"Just for a little." He muttered, taking Astrid outstretched hand. With his secret discovered, he went back and grabbed the bags, pushing past and down the stairs, she followed behind him each step of the way.

"You're going to go find the missing soldiers, aren't you?"

"How did you-? My mail again... I thought I burnt that. "

"You tried. Snotlout took it out with the iron as you left."

"Well that's just great. I'm writing you all up now since it seems that is what you want." Hiccup snapped back. He noticed that none of the other students were in the barracks. He had canceled lessons yesterday though so perhaps they figured he would cancel them today too. Astrid just stayed back to check. Seeing no reason to linger he pushed open the door and started off towards the dragon's pens.

"You can't seriously think you can do this alone, can you?"

Hiccup didn't reply instead he started to push open Toothless's gate, which had been forced closed during the storm.

"If you plan on running away again then you'd better think twice." Said Fishlegs. Hiccup turned and was surprised to see the rest of the cadets standing behind him. They all had various pastries from a bakery in the upper town, they had gone out for breakfast.

"Ym merfh wisfe tof speef helpf from mh morhls deflthest whephon." Tuffnut spoke something unintelligible through his mouth full of muffin.

"Um?" Tuffnut said something else equally as understandable as the first thing and then Snotlout and Ruffnut called out something too, both with mouthfuls of food.

"I uh… Actually I still don't know. Astrid?" He finally asked confused.

"I think they are trying to say that they want to come too, we all want to help." She said good-naturedly. A few vigorous nods confirmed the statement.

"I don't know, it is a long trip on the back of a dragon, and it is all time sensitive. I can't be slowed down because of beginners."

"We won't slow you down," Fishlegs started, then reconsidered what he was saying, "well, we technically _will_ slow you down because you have a Nightfury, but our assistance may be helpful in other ways." he finished hopefully.

"Nice Fishlegs." Snotlout barked angrily, then looked back expectantly at Hiccup.

Hiccup thought for a minute, looking at the hopeful faces. Perhaps the company would be nice. "Go pack a bag quick, if you're not back in ten minutes I'm leaving without you."


	9. Nostalgia

**It's a bit short but I hope you like it! Christmas break is starting soon and I'm actually going to try and finish this story. There is about 10 more chapters planned.**

* * *

The weather had warmed up drastically by the time they were over the ocean. Hiccup had set a brisk pace for the cadets to keep up with yet as the day progressed they became more and more comfortable with flight. The dragons themselves seemed simply content to be flying for real and tamely followed behind Toothless. The cadets seemed to realise that dragon riding was a team effort.

As the day wore on the cadets joked between themselves and followed behind Hiccup. They hadn't asked much questions since they had left, they hadn't even bothered to ask how Hiccup figured out the location. He was grateful for that.

After a while they began to attempt some of the flying maneuvers they would need to know. Hiccup was badgered until he gave them a list of the easier ones and showed them a few examples. Then he was roped into practising with them. But as the day moved on the students settled into simple flying, the dragons all raised their heads to catch whiffs of the ocean air. Hiccup slowed down to a more comfortable pace, much to the joy of his cadets and his own aching hips.

As they soared through the sky the dragons had adopted something Hiccups clan called a relaxed formation. Except for the leader the dragons were staggered, more or less side by side, they all followed Toothless without hesitation. This was a formation dragons would take instinctively when they flew with a group that they felt extremely comfortable with. In all his service he had never once seen war dragons fly like this.

It brought him back to his days at the cocoon. And Hiccup couldn't help but be gripped with nostalgia as they flew, _how long had it been since I traveled with people this way_ he wondered. This thought, and the feeling that the moment gave him thrust the memories into his head. He let himself slip into his mind.

* * *

He was named the prince the day after his sixth birthday. It changed everything for him, and not really for the better. From that day onward he was ostracized by the other children his age. His life consisted of tutors and studies, learning a hundred different secrets for hundreds of different dragons. Map making, map reading, sword fighting, hand to hand, dance. Half the things he knew would probably never help him protect dragons but he still had to know it all. As a prince he would become the figurehead and leader of the clan. He would oversee both dragons and people, though the council would help him on the human parts.

Outside his room he would watch the other children wrestling the dragons trying to tame one. He would catch a glimpse before he would be forced back to studying. Soon they would fly by in wild elation, shrieking gleeful cries on the backs of their dragons. Meanwhile Toothless would be fast asleep by Hiccups feet while Hiccup continued to recite memorized flight patterns.

When he was eleven the constant pressure of his book studies was alleviated and Toothless was old enough to ride. Once they got him on the dragon it became impossible to get him off. He refused to be taught be flight tutors deciding instead to develop his own style, and after a few months he had surpassed them all anyways.

The better he was at flying the stronger the tools he needed and the clan just couldn't provide. Because of the lack of tools he started to try to develop some on his own. Once he was done building the necessities he found himself hooked on the process of creation.

He would often visit the forge where his uncle worked, building strange things that others didn't understand. The extensive study of books that had been forced upon him had aided in his curiosity. This was the only hobby he was allowed to keep, the only outlet for his creativity and he showed it with the mass amount of failed experiments that littered his room. But as time passed and he got better none complained about the wasted metals left in his wake.

Even though he was fitting into the technical role of a prince well, the other children still wouldn't accept him. He was so different. While they ran about the ice cocoon playing games, wrestling, or left on the backs of their dragons to go hunting and adventuring, Hiccup only studied or flew his dragon. It wasn't long before his body adapted to this, making him lean with muscles in all the right places for the quick slight of hand movements that high-speed dragon riding called for, but not such hunting and rough-housing.

He looked different then them, thought differently then them, was treated differently then them; he wasn't surprised they didn't like him. Yet he hardly ever faced any open remarks, most likely due to his status, which made him feel even more alone. He ended up just trying his best to avoid them.

Because of this it was more common to find him speaking with dragons then with humans. He developed a close friendship with the alpha and many other dragons of the clan. It wasn't a strange sight to see Hiccup hoping from dragon to dragon as they zipped through the air, only to dive off one and be caught be another. His connection with dragons was stronger then that of his with the humans of his clan, and they all knew it.

After his fight with the other alpha things slowly started to change, other members of the clan started to acknowledge him as a prince. It wasn't long after that that the war broke out.

Once again everything changed.

Suddenly it became all about the military, keeping track of grain stores was replaced by keeping track of spies. Book study became war strategy. They had to be prepared for everything. He stopped flying Toothless and made his first weapon. And then he was told he would become a spy himself and he became lost in his own web of lies and deceit.

* * *

"Hiccup would you listen already!" An angry voice snapped him out of his kaleidoscope of memories.

"Huh?" He looked about, seeing the annoyed face of Astrid glaring at him.

"It's getting late, shouldn't we land and take a break?"

"Oh, yeah? Um, just follow me then." Hiccup steered them towards the direction of an island they couldn't yet see but he knew was there from his map. It was another half-hour before they landed on the small islands sandy beach.

The students divided the tasks, some pitching tests and other gathering fire wood without having to be ordered. Hiccup spent the entire time napping shamelessly under the shade of a pine tree. The cool of the shade and cold of the coming night had made him sleepy. Unconsciously he rubbed his leg, both were again stiff from riding.

"Feeling okay Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked, his puffy cheeks were rosy red from cold and exertion. In his arms was a bundle of kindling.

"Yeah, just a little stiff."

"That's what you get for rushing around," Astrid called out as her bundle of sticks clattered onto the ground. She set up a small fire and Toothless lit it for her. Fishlegs waddled over and dropped his sticks onto the pile. Soon all the cadets had huddled around the fire. There shadows cast behind them dancing, and their dragons lay at the head of each shadow sound asleep.

Hiccup made a move to stand and join them in the meal they were breaking out when a small noise behind him made him freeze. He heard it again, then a different one from the other side. Slowly his hand went to his belt, fingers strumming against the blades hilt. He turned ever so slightly, just to get a glimpse of what was stalking him.

A Terrible Terror looked up at him, wide eyed and mouth open, tongue lolling out. As soon as it caught his eyes it toddled towards him and stroked up against his leg. Hiccup could se the scar the ran down his back and swooped down to play with the little beast.

"Fredrick! Who would have thought I'd see you again?" Hiccup whispered in excited recognition. The little dragon, that had lived in the ice cocoon from some time, cooed and nuzzled up to Hiccups neck. Hiccup held the little heat pocket tightly. From behind him the other noises revealed themselves and various coloured Terrors peaked out from the bush. Soon a few other were flopping at his feet to get a belly scratch.

Fredrick nuzzled into Hiccup, licking up and down his neck with his rough tongue. Hiccup started to push him off when the little dragon reached up and nipped at his ear. "Ouch!"

The five military cadets whipped around at the Major's sudden exclamation, and their dragons jumped up at the sudden movement. They all took a moment to make sense of the scene. Hiccup leant up against a tree and a pack of dragons curled up against him. He didn't even notice them, to busy trying to keep all the dragons from crawling onto his head.

"How do you do it," Fishlegs asked?

"Do wha-ouch!"

"Be like that with random dragons! There fawning all over you!" Astrid barked.

"They're just so cuddly though." Hiccup pried the one currently biting him off. A few of the Terrors perked up at the smell of food drifting over from the direction of the voices. Soon a few of the dragons had scuttled over to the group and were snapping their jaws hungrily at them.

Hiccup smiled as the students let them crawl onto their laps and gave them pieces of the food they were cooking. They had warmed up to dragons. Toothless nudged Hiccup and they both went over to join in the delight.

The moon lit up the entire night tracing the silhouette of the tents and casting the shadows of the sleeping cadets inside. The waves rushed up against the sand, twisting it into little streams as it was pulled into the sea. Hiccup stepped quickly through it, letting the soft sand muffle his footsteps. Toothless followed in stealthy unison. They worked there way further from the cadets so that their take off wouldn't be hear.

Hiccup bit his lip, he felt guilty slinking away like this but they couldn't actually believe he would take them somewhere so dangerous. Of course they could, but he just couldn't find the will to let them come. He had cracked under the pressure the other night but leaving them here was the best for them all.

It might not even be the real location and anyways they would only slow him down in battle. He would make this a stealth mission, whatever, or whoever, was on this island he would take be surprise. He didn't need brash rookies rushing out and acting spontaneously trying to get recognition.

He would just return for them when he had completed his task.

Toothless shot an almost silent breath of air to get Hiccups attention. _They were far enough away._ Hiccup stepped into his saddle. He wiggled his feet to get the heel of his boot to mold into the stirrup, his legs whined as he got into position. Toothless silently spread his wings, head dipping and muscles tensing.

Hiccup cast a final glance to the sleeping kids. Then a quiet cluck and they took into the air. The Night fury and his rider disappearing into the black, swiftly, silently and guiltily.


	10. Saved

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or read! Your support keeps me writing. This chapter will be unedited for awhile because my beta is busy, but it will be edited sooner or later.**

* * *

The island that they circled was not what Hiccup had expected. It wasn't abandoned like it should have been. He could see the flickering of lights in the towering sea fort, grey smoke rising from multiple chimneys. The sea fort that covered the peak was only half finished. Six some shipping boats were on the docks, masts left up. In the black of the night Hiccup couldn't make out too much detail.

He ushered Toothless to land on the opposite shore of the fort.

"Just wait here for me okay," he whisepered when they finally landed, "if something happens then go get the kids and take them home, okay?"

The dragon huffed angrily.

"No you can't come with me. It's to cramped for a dragon and you're not made for ground stealth."

A proud snort.

"You are very good at silent flying yes. If something happens to me use that skill and go back home to tell the clansmen."

A resigned ruff.

"Thank you." Hiccup took a few steps away then turned back to the waiting dragon. He wrapped his arms around the smooth black scales of Toothless's neck. "Be safe bud."

Toothless rolled his eyes and churr'd, ' _I should be saying that to you.'_

Without a second look Hiccup set off up the hill and towards the fortress.

It was smaller then he expected, the outside gate was guarded by a single thug type man. Hiccup didn't bother with him, instead he worked his way along the edge of the wall, using the brush as cover. Soon he found what he wanted. The unfinished section of the wall. They had foolishly left it unguarded.

It wasn't hard to sneak around, the rubble and building materials that were strew around the ground provided good enough hiding places. Hiccup just need to find out where the prisoners were and it seemed he was favored by the gods that night.

He managed to duck behind a half built house when a man in crumpled tan pants and a set of thick chainmail tottered past. Hiccup held his breath, leaning back on his hands too help stay hidden. The man walked halfway across the yard to a complete stone building and greeted the tall man who stood by it.

"Got the bread for the prisoners?" The guard asked the approaching man.

"Yee. Ya know 'hhis is a honhest to goth wasth. I don' see wha h'Eret and Drhago are doin' with people, h'Eret only sells the drhagons."

"Gosh Holthar you need to get a handle on that lisp I can't understand a thing you just said!"

Holthar glared at the offender and then pushed past him and into the prison. Hiccup's mind tried to make sense of what he had just heard. He swore that it sounded like Drago was one of the men kidnapping the dragons.

Not something someone who was fighting for their support should be doing. Drago was the king who oversaw the Unkonst soldiers. Hiccup was glad that he had come by himself. He would need to find more proof on the subject.

When the heavy wooden door clanged shut behind the man Hiccup started to move. He rolled his feet, placing his heel down first, lightly, then slowly shifting his weight, moving slowly on the rocky ground. He used the technique until he had gotten to the side of the stone building. It was small and resembled an entrance to an underground area. Hiccup looped around the back of the building and back to the other side. From his new position he could see the guard clearly, he was turned away from him.

He took a moment to assess his target, then he started towards the man. He stopped when he was almost touching the man's back. Only his training kept him from shaking with nerves. When he was so close to the man he could hear his uneven breathing he attacked, kicking the man hard in the back of the knee, forcing him to fall back. The attack was sudden and as the guard went to yell Hiccups arm had already tightened around the man's throat, lulling him into a forceful sleep.

As soon as the man went limp Hiccup lowered him to the ground. He dragged the heavy body back behind the building as quietly as he could. As he started towards the prison a thought crossed his mind. He went back to the body and patted him down finding what he wanted in seconds, a shining set of keys. Then he entered the prison.

He was right about it being an entrance to something underground, the stone room had only one chair and in the middle was a set of stairs going downwards. Hiccup made his way down quietly. The halls were lit sporadically with a few almost burnt out torches. The molted silhouette of the man who had food for the prisoners could be seen near the end of the hall.

Lining the hall was cage after cage. The prisoner was much larger then he had first thought and from the small amount of given light he could see that one side was filled with the missing soldiers and the other side was filled with dragons.

The dragons were all muzzled, he could hear their soft snores. On the other side the soldiers were eating the bread that they had just been given, none the wiser to Hiccup. Holthar continued down the long row. Hiccup made his way to the first cage.

A few soldiers recognized him instantaneously and the ones who did not had no trouble recognizing the excitement plastered over the others faces. Hiccup smiled and gave a slight wave, one of the soldiers who recognized him crawled over to the bars. Before talking he glanced down the hall to Holthar who was nearing the end of the cages.

"You should take care of him first. He has keys for our cells."

"I've got keys. Get yourselves out while I take care of him." Hiccup handed the keys into the man who nodded his thanks. Hiccup wasted no more time. He started down the hall, stealth slowly fading away as he rose from a crouch. He fingers played with the hilt of his sword, Inferno, as he pulled her out. His next step echoed as he finally shed the last of his silence. The dampness of the underground cell chilled him.

Holthar turned, seeing Hiccup and dropping the plate to the ground with a clatter, pulling out his own sword. He was about to shout when Hiccup lashed out. Metal clashed against metal, behind him Hiccup heard the scrap of the rusted cage door opening. He returned his focus to the fight.

"Who da helth isth you?" Hiccup lunged again and Holthar yanked his sword back to block. Inferno's tip bounded back after hitting the flat of Holthars sword. Holthar swung and Hiccup pulled to block. The large man was not an experienced sword fighter and the swing was to heavy and to large for the confined space. Hiccup, though, was a very good sword fighter.

As soon as the man swung, Hiccup stepped forward. The intimacy negated the swing, and Hiccup merely reached up with a trained speed and precision to stop the mans arm. His own sword came forward to press the skin of the mans throat.

Holthar, in a blind fear and fury, yanked back his arm and sword. Hiccup let the man's momentum pull him away to. But only just enough so that he could twirl his sword in his hand, so the blade faced himself, and have enough room to lash out, whipping Holthar on the temple with the hilt and rendering him unconscious.

"Good job Major Haddock!" A cheerful voice called out.

"First Lieutenant Orri!" He exclaimed wrapping her into a hug. The other soldiers had all been freed and one stooped down and took the keys from the fallen enemies belt. "It's great to see you again! Are you well?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine just a little tired. I honestly just want to get home."

"Ha yeah I get that, Let's just unlock the dragons and get out of here."

"The dragons," Another soldier questioned, "there are boats in the harbour we can take. Some of theses dragons are feral and ours had their restraints cut off."

"We can just let them out then." Hiccup mused, "keep them from our enemies."

"So just let them go and ruin the stealth of our escape then. I say we kill them."

Hiccup could feel the blood rising to his cheeks, his eyes narrowed. Orri put a hand on his arm and spoke quietly to him and the group. "Let's just leave them, it'll be hard to sneak them out Hiccup, Frinni has a point."

"I'm not leaving them here."

"I guess the rumors are true then, Major." Frinni hissed.

Hiccup tensed, "I don't know what you mean."

"Of course you don't but I've heard about you and your love for dragons. You are insane! I'm sure everyone here would love to know that-"

"Love of Thor." A gruff voice said, the head of every Vitikean soldier snapped towards the stairs. They were staring down a stunned looking thug, holding a sabre in his hand. He took a hesitant step back then stuttered out his cry of alarm. "P-Prisoner escape!"

"We need to get out now." Another soldier piped in before charging the young thug. Other soldiers followed him to help. A few looked at the Major then turned and started to run out, the young man had already been subdued by the other soldiers and his weapon taken.

"Come on Hiccup let's go."

"Orri I- I can't leave them." She gave him a solemn look and sighed.

"I'll see you after this then. Make sure you visit us, we've missed you baby sitting." Then she let go of his arm and followed the soldiers escaping. Soon outside cries of battle could be heard. Hiccup got to work quickly cutting into the locks, the keys had been taken by the soldier he had first given them too.

Each time he swung a door open a dragon would charge past, stop only long enough for him to take off the muzzle then, scramble up the stairs and lunge out to freedom. They knew if they stayed they would be returned to their rider. When the last dragon was released Hiccup started up the stairs himself. Only a huge mass cut him off from escape.

The guard was decked out in full armor. He seemed slightly startled at the sudden appearance of Hiccup. But he wasn't rattled for long. A huge sword swung towards him without hesitation. Hiccup jumped back to avoid it and tumbled down the stairs. The armored man walked slowly towards him, his shoulders almost stretching the width of the hall. There was no way Hiccup could get past him.

Hastily he got his sword in front of him, scrambling to his feet. He could feel blood in his mouth. He had bit his tongue when he fell, his hands were too scratched and bloodied from catching himself. The man smiled menacingly, eyes hidden behind the shiny helmet.

 _Why the hell is this guy so well armored,_ Hiccup thought as he started backwards. The man swung his heavy sword and Hiccup threw his up in defense. The sound of metal on metal rang through the now empty prison. Hiccup was pushed back by the force. He had to take a few steps back to get his balance suddenly he was falling back again. He had tripped on the unconscious Holthar. The armored man smirked and raised his sword above his head. Hiccup didn't have enough time to defend himself.

"Hiccup!" Screeee! Bang!

Hiccup looked up stunned as the man feel to the ground, a circle burn mark marred his back and the smell of burning flesh was putrid. Hiccup covered his nose with sleeve and looked towards the voice. Astrid stood at the top of the stairs framed by the coming dawn light that was flooding the island. Toothless stood proudly on the steps, looking at Hiccup with some concern.

"Why are you here?" Hiccup snapped. Astrid rolled her eyes and brushed past Toothless to go to him.

"You're welcome." She reached him and helped him to his feet. He had to spit the blood from his mouth before he could speak again.

"How did you get here?"

"We all saw you were gone so we saddled up. Fishlegs thought he knew where you might've gone but then Toothless arrivied. We thought you had sent him."

"No, I most certainly did not." Hiccup muttered glaring at his dragon. Toothless made a chirping noise. "The others are here too then?"

"Yeah there helping fight outside."

"We should go help then."

Astrid nodded and they both left the prison. Above ground was much worse then Hiccup had thought it would be. Most of the Vitikean soldiers had managed to get their hands on weapons, but they were slightly out numbered. He could see his students doted throughout the battlefield. He scanned each one to make sure none needed help, Astrid had run off to fight as well. Their dragons were perched up on the walls, out of the way of the battle. Toothless went up to join them.

As Hiccup looked over his students something about a certain fighter caught his eye. She was fighting near Fishlegs but there was something else, she was wearing an Unkonst set of armor. It was proof! He rushed over, swerving his way through the fighting.

The woman might have been wearing soldier armor but she was hardly well trained. In only two moves Hiccup had disabled the her, and a third decisive one had the woman on the ground. Hiccup knelt to cut the emblem from the outfit when a yelp caught his attention.

It was Fishlegs, the man he had been fighting had over powered him. His sword was buried into the boys chest.

Hiccup saw red.

In second he had covered the distance between them. It didn't even take him three moves, only one.

Inferno jabbed forward burying itself into the man's throat. He let out a gurgling scream, Hiccup released the gas in the blade and with a single spark the man was on fire. Hiccup yanked Inferno back. The thug stumbled back clawing at his throat in a desperate attempt to stop the blood, the horrid gurgled screams subsiding further as each second passed.

Hiccup didn't have time to mourn his own lack of mercy. He swung back to Fishlegs wrenching the sword from the blonde's chest. He pressed his hands to the wound. "Your fine, your fine, I've got you. Don't leave me."

Astrid appeared behind him.

"Get a dragon fast!" He barked at her and she ran off. Around him the battle became a claustrophobic cage, the painful memories of war being dredged up with each clash and scream. He could here the cry of 'get to the boats' passing through the ranks.

A screech told him of the arrival of Astrid and Stormfly. She helped him get Fishlegs on to the dragon. The injured boys brow was covered in sweat and blood had soaked through most of his shirt.

"Take him to the island, patch him up, go straight back to Berk. Do not wait for us, understand?"

"But Hiccup, I can…"

"This is war Astrid! Listen to me, I am your commanding officer, that there is your dying friend so just do what I tell you for once."

The girl went quiet. She straightened and clucked to her dragon, "Yes, Major Haddock." They took off.

Toothless was beside Hiccup in a flash. He mounted his dragon and took to the air. Below he could see that most of the soldier had made it to the boat and the others were still fighting there way through on the docks.

Soon the rest of the cadets had taken to their dragons and joined him.

"Let's burn the other boats then shall we?" They nodded and got to work. Soon the entire dock was on fire, sailors diving off boats and into the waters stained by sunrise and fire. When they had finished Hiccup and Toothless destroyed the dock that connected the ship of allies and the dock. The ship set sail filled with the soldier he had barely rescued.

The cadets headed towards the island but Hiccup stayed with the ship for awhile to make sure it continued on safely. When the sun finally pulled up over the horizon completely Hiccup left the ship in open waters to find his way to Berk. The fact that the proof had been left behind weighed heavy on his mind, but the blood on his hands drove him _home_.


	11. Celebrate

**Another unedited chapter ):**

 **Enjoy anyways!**

* * *

"Major Haddock. Major. Hiccup?" Hiccup blinked wearily, wincing at the light and waking to the world. The smell of bandage and slave burned his nose. Drearily he rubbed his eyes.

"Are you feeling better now Fishlegs?" He asked straightening his back, he adjusted the chair he was sat on. The boy was lying in the same clinic bed that Hiccup had when he first arrived. His face still had an unhealthy sheen to it, but he had pulled through.

"Yeah." His voice was hoarse. He didn't turn his head to face Hiccup, just stared at the ceiling. Hiccup swore he could see tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

"That's good then isn't. Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry Major. I couldn't even take that one man out. I put us all in danger. I shouldn't have a dragon, I- I shouldn't be a soldier." Fishlegs whimpered, a tear spilling from his eye.

"Nonsense! Fishlegs you are so great, you relationship with your dragon is masterful, and you're still just a cadet! You have so much time to improve."

"But you're the same age as us and you're a Major already! And… and I saw you fight. The man who downed me you took out in a single swing!" The tears trailed down Fishleg's cheeks.

"Look, Fishlegs, There's a reason I can do stuff like that and I sacrificed a lot that I honestly did not want to for something I can't really say I'm proud of. If you try you'll someday become what you are meant to be, and that doesn't necessarily mean killing people really fast though. It's not something you canbrag about."

"Then why did you learn?" Fishlegs asked, finally facing Hiccup. He brushed tears from his cheeks.

"Loyalty."

"You're very patriotic then." Hiccup didn't reply, closing his thoughts. Soon Fishlegs had fallen back to sleep, he looked much more peaceful. Hiccup felt himself drifting back to sleep when the door swung open. Astrid tip-toed in.

"Is he still asleep?"

"He was just awake. He's feeling better." Astrid smiled, she looked relieved. Hiccup looked to the corner sheepishly. "I'm sorry for getting mad yesterday."

"No," she waved her hands frantically, "I should've listened. You were the commanding officer and the more experienced one. Your orders might have saved his life."

"You saved his life Astrid. Don't sell yourself short. Your amazing." Hiccup felt heat in his cheeks as he realized what he said.

"Thank you." She replied, looking down at her shoes. Suddenly her head jerked up. "Do you want to help us decorate town for the Sun Festival?"

"That's today? I didn't even realise." Hiccup sighed internally, he had planned to report his findings to his clan immediately. Yet he figured that disappearing on such an important day might rise suspicions. It could wait a day. "I'd love to help."

"Great! I was thinking that we could do something with the dragons. Since Berk was lucky to get them lots of the towns folk want to see them."

"We could paint them."

"Paint them? Would they let us?"

"Let's see shall we." Hiccup laughed. He had painted Toothless on occasion, mostly for the clans celebrations. They celebrated the sun festival as well and always painted the dragons and had flight shows. Although Hiccup doubted they could put together a good flight show in time they could paint the dragons and just fly around.

Astrid led the way back to the arena, the other cadets were around town setting up other decorations. The twins were balanced precariously on ladders and Hiccup winced when they jumped down fearlessly to join them. Snotlout was helping some of the older men carry water to the area where they would have the big bonfire, he seemed more then happy to go paint dragons.

Banners were hung across the cobbled stone streets and streamers adorned the houses. Several kids ran about wearing black trousers and yellow shirts, holding candied apples in their hands. Berk certainly was a festive town.

Hiccup stopped at a shop to grab the paint, the cadets all went down to the arena to let the dragons out. He picked up a few cans, which he embarrassingly struggled to lift. He was halfway down the road when Astrid appeared, it only took her second to see him struggling to burst out laughing. She walked up to him and grabbed to cans, smiling slightly to herself, "come on."

Soon they rounded the corner to the arena, where the rest of the students had their dragons out and were giving them a rub down.

"Hiccup! How is Fishlegs?" Called Tuffnut, they had all been worried since they had admitted him to the hospital the other day. They hadn't let anyone but Hiccup and Fishlegs parents into the room the night. And in the morning the students had been to busy and tired to visit.

"He's doing better, the wound didn't hit anything vital, he just needs a dew days to heal. On a more cheerful note, Astrid came up with the idea of us doing something for the festival so were going to paint the dragons."

Hiccup had plied open each can of paint and the students got busy painting, or throwing paint at each other. As time ticked away the others settled down and started to take the painting seriously. They decorated their dragons with their own personal flair. The glowing yellow paint Hiccup had chosen really did shine like the sun.

Toothless was excited to get his done, and Hiccup took his time using his fingers to paint the solid dancing lines along the dragon. He had done it so many times that he quickly zoned out as he was doing it. He was almost done when Astrid yelped.

Stormfly looked surprised as well. The spikes on her tail stood out from her scales. It took Hiccup a second to figure out what was happening.

"You've never seen that before?"

"No. What is it."

Hiccup left Toothless who had found himself a spot in the light to dry, and walked over to Astrid. "It's a hidden talent, lot's of dragons have them, you just need to know the right way to pull them out. Toothless has one to increase flight stability. Stormfly here can use those spikes to attack."

"What about Barf?"

"And Belch?"

"In battle," Hiccup walked over to the Hideous Zippleback, and gentle rubbed it's heads, "they can bite there own tail and form a flaming wheel to knock down opponents."

"What!"

"Sick!"

"What about Hookfang? What can he do?"

"Well," Hiccup thought for a second, "he can light himself on fire."

"That's not very hidden." Snotlout mumbled, Hiccup heard the hint of disappointment in his voice, and so could Hookfang.

"Sure it's not very hidden but it's still freakin' awesome right?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah. Of course he's awesome you don't need to tell me that." Snotlout thought for a moment, then smiled gleefully. "All the other dragons have to hide their finishing moves but you so powerful you don't have to worry do you?" Snotlout said pridefully to his dragon. Hookfang looked up too his partner with a glean of pride in his own eyes.

When they had finished, and the paint had dried, they all worked to get the dragons saddled. They had all mounted their dragons and were about to take off when Astrid suddenly called out.

"Wait just a second I have an idea." Soon she returned pulling a wagon filled with several wicker baskets. Hiccup smiled when he saw what was in them.

"V-formation!" He called out and they took to the sky, wingbeats thundering out in the sheltered arena. They flew over the town, on Hiccup's single they all opened the wicker baskets they had been given. A whirlwind of yellow confetti fell to the town and excited cheers could be heard as they flew on.

Hiccup smiled, it had been awhile since he had celebrated on the back of a dragon. He looked to his left, where Astrid rode on Stormfly. She had a huge smile on, yellow strips of paint crossed her nose and both cheeks. She was leant over the side of her dragons waving to people watching from below. Her hair whipped back in the wind and she moved with her dragon so perfectly. They had built a solid bond over the course of training.

When the baskets ran out they continued to fly, dancing around the town and splitting up. Soon everyone but Astrid and Hiccup had gone their own direction.

"Hiccup?" Astrid called out, pulling up beside him.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering, well if you could, uh well would want to go and…" She paused and took a huge gulp of air. "Do you want to watch the lantern lighting at the cliffs with me?"

Hiccup blushed, and covered it up by looking at his hands, "I would like that very much actually."

"Great then let's meet up just before the lighting okay?" She didn't wait for his reply, instead she zipped off to hide her joyous smile.

Below him Toothless chirped.

"Shut up."

* * *

Toothless landed in a small clearing near the cliffs, even from here Hiccup could see the boats pulling out of the harbour. Astrid had yet to arrive.

Hiccup walked out to the edge of the cliff, cautiously sitting down, feet dangling off the edge. Toothless curled up beside him, resting his head on Hiccups lap, the yellow streaks of paint seemingly sparkling. Except for the rhythmic crashing of the waves below the night was silent. Even the breeze that traced the billowing trees made no whistle. The two sat like that, lost in quiet contemplation and simply content in the other's presence.

Astrid approached from the trees, she had left Stormfly behind since she seemed sore from the long trip. She knew the mountains of her home town well enough to make her way with out an aerial view. When she finally arrived she was glad she had walked.

Unaware of her presence she could see the two, sat on the edge of the cliff, silhouettes outlined by the glaring moonlight reflected from the dark ocean. They were so peaceful. And Hiccup. His tousled brown hair shaking in the wind, his head angled slightly up gazing at something only he could see.

She took a step forward and cleared her throat. His head snapped back, she watched the trace of blankness fall from his face replaced by the ever familiar smile.

Hiccup stood up and walked over to Astrid, she leant against a tree arms crossed.

"Sorry I was a little late."

"They haven't set the lanterns off yet so your good." He sat down at the base of the tree she was leaning on, Astrid slid down the trunk and sat beside him. The boats were in clear view now, and on their decks they could see the tiny golden lights starting to glow.

They watched as a trail of glowing lanterns raced into the sky, the cheers of the others could be heard even on the cliff. Astrid starred up mesmerized by a sight she saw every year, yet it seemed so much brighter this time. She set he hand on the ground to lean forward, she felt it land on of Hiccups. Neither of them made a move to pull away.

With a shuddering breath she decided to do what she had come to do. She turned towards Hiccup mouth open to compensate for the flurry of words that rushed to her mind, she was startled to see that Hiccup was already looking at her. Her mouth hung open for a moment.

Hiccup scrunched his eyebrows and tilted his head, "fly catching?"

"I forgot what I was saying." She hissed, she had lost her nerve though. Hiccup only gave her a boyish smile in retaliation, but she noticed, subconsciously at least, that his eyes strayed from hers and flashed with a more troubling look.

Astrid looked back up at the sky. It twinkled with golden lanterns and flickering stars.

"They're not this bright in the city." Hiccup remarked, he spoke in a wispy tone as if the words were an escaped thought.

"The lanterns?"

"The stars."

"Oh," she had never really spoke to him about his past or personal life, not directly at least. Her mind wandered to the other night, the way he had taken out the soldier that injured Fishlegs. It had been impressive certainly but, she couldn't help thinking, just maybe, that the cold that haunted his eyes in that moment was something he actively hid from them. Constantly hid from them.

"Did you always live in the city?" She asked.

"No, I lived in a rural area, I guess. But I moved to the city as soon as I got accepted into the academy."

"Did you have relatives there?"

"No. I stayed at the dormitory during training and when I started working I just rented a room. I wasn't on the ground much anyways."

"It must have been lonely." She said, a single lantern flickered, falling from the sky and away from the others. She turned to look at Hiccup, who was staring wide-eyed at the display before them, that single lantern reflected in his eyes.

"Perhaps," he mumbled, "but I have a really great friend who doesn't give me time to be lonely." That really great friend was currently edging closer and closer to the border of the cliff, leaning over as if trying too give himself vertigo. His black and yellow tail swishing back and forth.

Astrid felt the nerve return. She spoke before the tendrils of doubt snatched it away again. "Hiccup, I-I I like you." She said in a rushed yet stuttered jumble. Hiccup looked at her, wide eyes growing even wider. He opened his mouth the closed it, taking a second to gather his thoughts.

"Astrid I…" His eyes darted from her again, then returned with a newfound clarity, "I think that is very inappropriate. I am your teacher and rank above you several times over." He reached up to put a comforting hand on her shoulders. She stepped back to avoid it.

"I don't feel that way towards you at all," he continued, "And I'm being blunt so that there is no misunderstanding later on okay, do not have any hopes of us happening. You should try and find a person more suited to your status."

Astrid was mortified, she could feel the blood draining from her face with every word, heart beat slowing to the sound of each syllable. She couldn't move, she just stared at him paralyzed from embarrassment, his eyes flickered from her face to the forest behind her again and again. The world stoped all at once.

His voice broke that spell. "I think you should leave now." The world started spinning again. She whipped around and dashed into the forest, letting the trees shield her from his view and the echo of her heavy steps cover the sound of her tears.

Hiccup watched the shadow of the forest step into the moonlight. The man's grin went from ear to ear, only dropping when he let out a low whistle. "Helloo Mr. Heartbreaker!" He said in a cat-call way.

Hiccup glared daggers at the burly man, Sloan was only a few years older then him but his father was an official on the council. He had used his rank to be a bit of a pain throughout the years. Even the prince was not spared.

"Hello Sloan. Why are you here, trying to destroy my cover?"

"Nah, I'm here to tell you, my Royal Highness Supreme Ruler Lord, that the clan has chosen it's side, you're spying days are over, much to your dismay it seems," He jeered.

"You've chosen sides? Why was I not called to this meeting! Ughh, have you already alerted the Vitikean army of our alliance then?"

"I never said we joined the Vitikean army. Drago sent his son, Dagur to officiate a treaty with our clan. They've promised a dragon utopia for our help in winning the war."

"No."

"Yes."

"No! No, you don't understand I overheard that he was making deal with Eret! Dargo is buying and selling and kidnapping dragons! We can't side with him if that's how he treats the dragons."

"That seems like something you should've mentioned right away." Sloan's tone rang of disbelief and Hiccup bit is tongue in annoyance.

"I know, I just! Ughhh! Why didn't you get me for the meeting, I'm the prince you can't leave me out of something this big."

Sloan just rolled his eyes and whistled for his dragon, the Monstrous Nightmare crawled up from where it had been hanging on the cliff. Toothless trotted over to Hiccups side.

"Not much we can do about that now," Sloan mounted his dragon and took to the air without waiting for Hiccup, "and clean that gunk of your dragon so no one sees us fly away."

* * *

Astrid was stomping her way back up the cliff. Something was wrong. Hiccup wasn't rude like that, and if he was he was about to get a piece of her mind. She reached the cliff just in time to see the two dragons flying towards the lanterns.

The Nightfury, decorated in the careful art of his rider tucked in his wings, collapsing from the sky and into the ocean. Astrid gasped and ran to the edge of the bluff. She watched as they stayed under the water, the seconds slowly ticking by. After some time she could see a spray of water rising from the ocean. But no longer could she see the dragon and his rider, the warm yellow that highlighted the sky had been washed away and the final festival lantern wavered and went out.


	12. Betrayal

**Happy New Years and a belated Happy Holidays!**

 **Thanks to everyone who has supported this story so far. Chapter again unedited but will be soon enough.**

* * *

The cocoon was a whirlwind of activity, the dragons clung to walls to stay out of the way of the rushing humans. Soldiers ran from side to side, hauling weapons and saddles, any that had a free hand stopped to press it to the center of their chest just below their throat, a sign of respect for the returning prince.

Hiccup could see a few spies, still wearing the hair styles of the capital and walking with a soldiers dignity. It had taken them half a day, since Sloan was so slow, to get there yet already so many had returned home.

He could see the joy on their faces to be home. But he didn't have time to enjoy it for himself as soon as his feet hit the ground he was going to the council room, Toothless hot on his heels. He could see his mother surrounded by other council men, they were leaning over the table and discussing something. He didn't knock.

"Hiccup we've been waiting for you!" Valka chirped as soon as he stomped in.

"Have you? Because you certainly didn't wait to make this decision, which is a huge mistake might I add."

"What are you saying?" Another council men barked.

"I went to rescue the soldiers and dragons on that island. I overheard two men talking about how Drago was buying dragons from Eret. He stole military dragons and muzzled them. The Vitikeans had the decency to capture their own dragons, and they were much laxer when it came to restraints!" He finished furiously, "why wasn't I consulted?"

"Prince were sorry but the treaty was a 'time is of the essence' type thing, we couldn't ask them to wait for you to find time to sneak away."

"Something this big isn't something I'd struggle to find time for! I was here just days ago."

"Yes," Valka cut in, using her tired mother tone, "and you had just left when our soldiers met with the envoy. You don't have any tangible proof either. Take a look at the treaty, they wrote most of it, see if that will make you feel better." Hiccup squashed his embarrassment before moving to the table to look at the treaty.

Honestly it was very moral. It promised that the war dragons would be released immediately after they won. That they wouldn't keep dragons specifically for defense, that the dragons owned would be treated fairly and that the Bewilderbeast clan would be allowed to police the treatment of dragons. It truly would be a dragon Utopia. But it was to good to be true.

"We don't know if he will keep his end of the bargain."

"We'll just have to trust him then won't we? Our spies in the Unkonst army didn't find any evidence of him being part of the dragon trafficking ring, perhaps you heard wrong?"

"But I saw too, one of the people had a soldiers uniform."

"Do you have proof of this?" A male official who had just come in accused, it was Sloan's father. Hiccup swallowed.

"No."

"Uniforms get stolen boy, or perhaps you just didn't take your job seriously? Stop wasting our time just because your smitten with a girl in the Vitikean army." Sloan must have told his father right away. A few council men raised eyebrows and turned to him.

Hiccup snapped. "Watch what you say to me! You're speaking to your prince." Beside him Toothless stiffened, almost instantly the room grew unbelievably tense. Toothless's jays parted ever so slightly and the threat became uncomfortably clear.

Sloan's father raised his hand, touching it to his chest and dipping his head. "My apologies it seems I have spoken out of turn."

"Yes, I'm also sorry for reacting so viciously." His reply was the quick trained response of a prince, yet he did mean it, beside him Toothless settled back. It wasn't like him to be so hot headed. These days everything was weighing him down and stressing him out.

With another sigh he spoke again, addressing the council as there prince, "I would like to sign the treaty as well. It may not mean anything now but humor me. The future of the clan is also mine, if this decision is bad, or good, I would like to be a part of the decision. Even if it may only be on paper."

His mother smiled, grabbing a quill and inkwell from the table and handing the treaty to him. He stood at the head of the table and the council men stood straight as he signed. He set the treaty on the smooth table, the council men stood fast with respect. He wrote his name in the eloquent writing his mother was so proud of. And as the ink dried on paper and the council clapped in a show of support, he prayed, to anyone or anything, that he had not just signed to the demise of his clan.

* * *

Hiccup lay awake in his bed. He was in his old room, Toothless was asleep above him on a shelf that had been carved into the ice.

This had been the room he had spent his childhood in. A shelf for Toothless, a bed for him, a desk to study, papers pinned to the wall, and random inventions pushed into a corner. His room was his, but it wasn't what he wanted. He missed the hard pallet bed and sloped roof above his head.

How had he managed to get so attached to them he wondered. He had gone years without getting attached to the Vitikean, well he wasn't afraid to betray them for his clan at least. But he felt horrid, lying there staring at the reflective blue ice above his head, he felt like a betrayer.

He rose from bed almost silently, Toothless woke up as he stood and crawled down to join him. Hiccup put on his boots and shuffled on pair of pants and a green shirt. He grabbed a brown jacket with a fur lining and shrugged it on.

Toothless led the way. It wasn't a mission of stealth as much as a mission of not getting spoken to. He walked like a man with a mission and didn't meet a single persons eyes. When he was in the clear he mounted Toothless, who sprinted to the exit.

They burst into the night air and zipped through the sky. He urged the NIghtfury to go faster, hoping to make to Berk and home before anyone noticed. He needed to see the kids one last time. Even if they didn't see him.

Hiccup and Toothless made it to Berk in record time, and to Hiccups delight the barracks' windows were glowing with lamplight and a lantern hung outside the door. He ushered Toothless down nearer to the shore and walked the rest of the way to the barracks. The fur lining provided a thankful protection form the ocean winds.

A single window hung open, slightly crooked on it's hinges, to let the summer breeze in. Hiccup crawled to it and crouched beside it, he could hear the quiet voices of his students, no, the students. He felt guilty for coming back to eaves drop but they _had_ read his mail twice.

He had arrived with steller timing as only after a few minutes Astrid spoke.

"I wonder where he is?"

"He's a spy Astrid, he's probably pretending something somewhere. Not that I care tough." Snotlout muttered. So they knew. Of course they did though, dozens of elite soldiers suddenly drop out of your army it becomes a little obvious that you've been duped. The rumors of the treaty couldn't have reached here to soon after that.

"Who's going to tell Fishlegs." Astrid spoke again.

"Not me." The twins quipped, but their usual gusto was lacking.

"If he is a spy then we might have to fight him."

"We won't graduate for another year yet, we'll be able to beat him by then. He trained us after all." Astrid shot back to Snotlout.

"Haven't you heard," one twin asked?

"It's not like you to be behind." The other chimed in.

"Heard what?"

"The graduation date was moved up, the examiners are flying out tonight and testing us tomorrow. This way if the treaty is real we'll all end up fighting." Snoutlout interrupted before the twins could continue the bickering.

"Are we ready for this?"

"Sure we are," Snotlout gloated, "we had a great teach- we all did well on that rescue mission right? Come on guys don't look so glum. If your worried Astrid then you can just hide behind me."

"Who says you won't be hiding behind me." Hiccup sat there for a moment, soaking in the playful banter he had grown so accustomed to. But what they had said worried him and before long he was slinking away again. They couldn't be allowed to graduate.

Not only would it be bad for his clan and their alliance but he didn't think he could fight if he knew they were somewhere on the same battle field as him. They would be slaughtered by his clansmen who were trained to ride dragons from birth, there was a reason that his clan was such a desired alliance. He would stop this graduation, he would stop all of them.

* * *

He arrived back at the cocoon breathlessly, his mother stood at the entrance a concerned look on her face.

"Where have you been?"

"Berk," Hiccup wheezed.

"Oh my boy, what have you done now?"

"Nothing mom. Well, actually…" He explained the whole situation to her, what he had heard and what he thought they should do. She listened intently, and when he finished she smiled. "Is this something to be happy about, mom?"

"Oh surely not but, ohhh, I can't help but be so proud of my son. Look at you, embracing something you disagreed with for the sake of your people, spying on people you were close with a single day ago. Your truly an amazing prince."

"Thanks." He hadn't thought of it as spying, he had gone to see them one last time; how had he even ended up spying on them?. He had spied on them and reported home without even realising it. _What had he become? A man who could betray people without a single thought towards it._ He was surprised to see the blur forming on the bottom of his eyes, and to feel the warm tears slidding down his cheeks.

His mother looked alarmed, and rushed forward, pulling him to her chest comfortingly stroking his hair. "I don't know what's wrong, but relax, your home now, your safe and it's almost over. This war is almost over."

He stayed like that for a moment weeping silently, not caring of how foolish it might be for him to be crying in his mothers arm, in the entranceway no less.

He was exhausted, mentally and physically. He wasn't sure what he wanted anymore. Had he done this to protect _them_ or his clan. He was tired of the fighting and the killing. He was tired of looking into mirrors and not recognizing himself or worse recognizing himself only when that cold expression haunted his eyes. He wanted to fly on Toothless without strain and rush. He wanted to explore and travel with having to silently crawl around enemies. He wanted to build something other then a weapon to bring about more death and war and blood.

He wanted to go back in time, and tell the girl he thinks he loves the truth, the he likes her too. That he wants her to wait and that someday when it's all over he'll come back if she'll take him.

He stopped crying, pulling away from his mother to dry his eyes. She laughed at him, "It's been so long since I've treated you as my child. Now Toothless be a good friend and take him back to bed. Don't worry about the council, I'll fill them in and tomorrow we'll finalize our plan of attack together. I think it might be a good chance to finish it all."

Hiccup nodded wordlessly, then let Toothless led him towards his room. He clambered onto the bed then reached up and hauled himself onto the icy shelf. Toothless leapt up beside him.

The boy and his dragon slept an empty and wakeless sleep.


	13. Fight

**Unbeta'd, overdue chapter! I'm going to try and finish this story but chapters may still take a long time to come out, sorry**

* * *

Hiccup lay on Toothless's back, staring up at the clouds above them hand dipping into the clouds below. They continued to circle, shadowed by several other dragons and riders. They were waiting, preparing to strike as soon as the army officials and students left to the arena.

The mission was to destroy the barracks, and free the dragons. It had been decided that there was no better time to catch the enemy unaware then at the very beginning. Drago had an army ready and was marching to the capital at that very moment, backed by the main force of the clan. Several other small groups like the one Hiccup commanded were spread out and attacking the other academies. Hiccup had fought to attend to this first before he would join the real fight on the mainland.

It really was the end of the war. The main force was marching and the decisive battle was about to be fought.

"Are you still with us or have you just stopped trying today?" Sloan called out, passing Toothless and Hiccup easily. Hiccup ignored him, Toothless continued his slow circle.

After a few minutes a Deadly Nadder and his rider flew into the clouds with them, he joined the circle, flying instantly to Hiccups side.

"Prince, they have gathered to finish the test now." The test included a simple written exam, after the students would be put against each other in a effort to tame a wild dragon tossed into the ring.

Hiccup rolled over and sat up, he adjusted Toothless' tail, a subtle click click in the silence the team of seven waited in. "Let's go." The seven angled downwards and as they dipped out of the clouds the town below took shape.

"Okay men, I'll head to the arena to get the dragons, you go around back and destroy the barracks, cause a commotion and hold off any attackers." His clansmen nodded, angling away from him and diving from the clouds. Hiccup started to speed up his own descent.

The pink clouds parted for them and Hiccup could only imagine the terror below as the seven scaly beasts fell towards the town. As he got closer he could see the men leading the wild dragon drop its chains in shock. It took to the air shaking wildly to free itself from it's binds. Without a second of hesitation one of Hiccup's men flew to the frenzied dragon and cut the chains. The dragon responded with gratified roar before turning in the sky and spitting a frenzy of flame towards the cozy town.

Hiccup watched as men jumped to arms. He could see the ant sized people running towards the dragon training arena. His students were preparing to fight. "Toothless shoot the gate closed." Toothless responded instantly firing a flash of plasma down to the ground. The ant sized ones jumped back from the gate as the chain broke and it clattered closed. Hiccup urged Toothless silently faster over the barriers of the arena and down to its rocky floor, his sharp claws scratched his shaky stop into the floor of the training center.

He pushed the faces from his mind as the memories threatened him, reminding himself that they were they enemy now. He slid from the back of his dragon and went straight to the cages that held the dragon's, he could see confusion in their eyes.

He could hear the cries of the Berkian fighters and the screeches of the dragons. While they distracted the warriors, Hiccup started to cut through the locks on the cages on the dragons, they were all brand new most likely added after news of his betrayal. He started with Meatlug, the tired dragon stumbling out when the cage opened, he made his way along the cages, sawing through the locks and releasing each dragon. He finished with Stormfly, the blue dragon walked out of her cage hesitantly, nuzzling Hiccups arm as she went, he patted her.

"Go on now, you're free again." The dragons stared at him for a little longer before taking to the air. He watched as they rose into the air, he could see them briefly look at their masters who were shouting at Hiccup. They stared for a moment, at their captors and friends. Then the beating wings flew off towards their old homes.

Hiccup moved over to Toothless who had his head turned up at the sky, watching his friends fly off in the distance. He is halfway on when a clang and clatter behind him sent him spinning around. He watched in horror as the gate to the arena fell open and in walked a very angry bunch of cadets, weapons drawn, bodies tense.

Toothless took a few steps back, opening his mouth in a threatening movement. The cadets glared Hiccup down approaching with various swords and weapons. Hesitantly Hiccup raised his own, "look I can explain."

"You can lie you mean, like you have ever since you meet us."

"No Astrid I wasn't lying. Well not all the time… I didn't know who you were back then." He spoke desperately as they continued to advance. The were done speaking though and the first clang rang out. "I don't want to fight you!" He shouted as they advanced.

He parried a blow from Astrid and that's when he caught sight of Sloan. Standing above them, judging him. He moved to block another blow, it skirted across his blade and slashed into his cheek. He hissed with pain and instinctively swung harshly back. His blades stopped inches from cutting off Astrid's hand.

The terrified look in her eyes would haunt him. He knew it would. But it disappeared quickly and was replaced by that characteristic fury. Again it returned to a parry of blows and slowly, as the fight continued and the students were forced to come to their senses, Hiccup found himself facing all of his students. With each bittersweet swing that proved he had taught them well as much as it revealed he had so much more he could, he grew more and more tired. He started to slow down.

That would cost him the fight.

When a deciding blade swung towards his neck Hiccup was surprised to hear to tell-tale clang of a block. His eyes opened instantly and he stared in mute horror as Sloan went from defense to offence. Hiccup was stronger the Sloan in almost every way, so as each attack brought the students to their knees it became painfully clear Hiccup had been holding back.

"Get up, Prince! Help me finish them!" Sloan cried as he twisted his arm in a final blow, it didn't land though. Hiccups blade flew threw the air and his desperate bid to stop the fight won for a moment. His sword crashed into, Sloan's and for a moment the other sword was stayed. But then the angry eyed subordinate turned on Hiccup with a snarl.

"There is no time, we should just get out of here." Hiccup said as he climbed to his feet. Sloan had a look in his eyes that told everyone how he truly felt towards Hiccup. It didn't bother him tough, murderous rage was something Hiccup was used to seeing. Instead of backing off, or avoiding his gaze Hiccup stepped forward and grabbed the tip of Sloans sword.

The students had been forgotten. In the internal power struggle they were of little concern. But they weren't unaware. It was Astrid who made the move, the leader that she was, and with a cry she launched herself forwards. Her weapon made a clean arc towards Sloan who was still locked into a deadly staring battle with Hiccup. Hiccup could see the blade and at that moment he was done with fighting. He swung Sloan out of the way, and launched forward. A hand to the throat, a foot behind hers, knee to the gut, and fall. Astrid's head hit the stone with an unsettling crack.

For a moment Hiccup worried that he had been to harsh with the practised take down. But he quickly noticed her eyes were still open. She was staring at him, this time not with horror but with bewilderment.

"So you really have betrayed us, prince." The last part was spit out like venom and he tensed.

"No, Astrid, guys, you have to believe me when I say this wasn't what I wanted. We need to protect the dragons, and the Unkonst were the first to provide us with a treaty. I never wanted to hurt you guys."

"Yeah, well you did. Now you're siding with the enemy, why should we believe a word you say!"

"They are your enemy, they aren't ours." Sloan spat out, nursing his wound. Hiccup whipped around to cut him off when he noticed the smoke coming from the distance. Astrid had noticed it too.

"Oh god, you've destroyed the barracks. Why Hiccup, just why. Were we not good enough, was it all a lie. Why did you become our enemy."

Something inside him snapped, when he saw the tears that sprang to her eyes. He looked up to the other, students he had considered friends. They all shared similar expressions. He had hurt them, he had hurt them much more then if he had cut them with a blade. Behind him Sloan was saying something but he couldn't listen, his mind was whirling and his heart was breaking. Slowly his grip on her released and she sprang back, crawling backward to where the other students were on the ground.

He stood up, his expression blank, dusting off his pants. "Sloan we should join the main force." Behind Sloan the other dragons had landed near the edge of the arena and their riders were listening intently.

"No. We should kill them and the other warriors." Hiccup couldn't contain the rage and was about to end Sloan that very moment when the other clansmen spoke.

"He is right, my Prince, they should not be allowed to impede our goal."

And that was it. He was leading a clan of killers who were refusing to obey. This is what it had come down to, a band of murderers who killed all humans who stood in their why. A group of men who refused to listen to him. It must have showed on his face how furious he was, how done he was. 'Cause he could feel it, in every inch of his body, an anger that itched and whirled and something else too. That made him feel like he was more a dragon then a man.

He screeched, "Did I say maybe we should go join the main force? No! I said we were going. If you fear half-trained cadets without dragons then I have no need for you in my army. Now, **I said go**."

Something happened this time, besides the shock on his mens faces. This time their dragons took the initiative, whipping around and launching from the ground and into the sky. They flew off in the direction of the capital where the battle would be held. Sloans dragon too, turned to leave, forcing Sloan to cast a fearful look in his direction before scrambling to get onto his dragon back before it left without him.

He watched in slight confusion as the dragons took off, even when their masters tried to stop them. He turned to call for Toothless, seeing his students picking themselves up off the ground, only the find that Toothless was leaving too. "Wait, woah, bud, come back." The NightFury stopped turning its head to him for a moment, eyes distant. Then he shook his head and giving a confused look made his way back to Hiccup. He climbed onto his back just as Snotlout had gotten up and grabbed his weapon.

"Where are you going?" The voice was pained, and rough from her neck being mishandled. He'd held her down to forcefully. "Why did you protect us?"

Hiccup didn't answer.


End file.
